When veteran police sergeant Karen Smythe is raped while responding to a crime in progress, Detective Benson is quick to come to the aid of the woman who was her mentor during her rookie days in the Special Victims Unit. Benson and Stabler find that Smythe's ex-husband's gambling debts may have been the motive for her assault, though the growing interest of the Internal Affairs Bureau casts suspicion on all of the officers connected to Smythe.