The series chronicles the lives of a passionate team of crime scene investigators in Las Vegas: Gil Grissom, the senior forensics officer who lives and breathes his job; Catherine Willows, an ex-stripper and single mother juggling the job she loves with looking after her daughter; Warrick Brown, a junior investigator who learns some of his lessons the hard ways; Nick Stokes, whose charming manner goes a long way in aiding investigations, and Sara Sidel, the newest member of the team. Captain Jim Grass is a no-nonsense investigator who assists from his position in Homicide

The show can sometimes be vivid in its portrayal of crime scenes; the camera zooms in on bullet wound on a cadaver on the autopsy table, or focuses on a severed leg pulled out a lake. However, death isn't all the crimimalists handle: they tackle hookers who are mysteriously passing out, car accidents with missing drivers, kidnappings and thefts. Any crime where the proper gathering and dissection of evidence leads the police to a solution and an arrest