 When Amanda visits the studio where she learned ballet before med school, an extremely talented Chinese dancer drops dead on the dance floor; he was poisoned by acupuncture needles tampered with blowfish toxin, possibly meant for his colleague Changteh who was about to defect. Company leader Martin Peterson asks Amanda to join to investigate undercover. Steve hears from the acupuncturist each dancer has his own box of needles, kept by the party-appointed  translator  Lee Moy. At the rehearsal for a benefit in the hospital, an exploding prop chest functions as distraction for the disappearance of Changteh and Amanda, who hide in her office- he says the killed dancer planned to defect with him, but they didn t know who overheard them; Mark discovers them and suggests a better hiding place. The Sloanes find an almost empty vial of blowfish toxin in Lee Muiys room; about to be returned to China under diplomatic immunity, he confesses to Steve, according to Mark only to avoid a worse fate in the PRC. Martin assures Mark the killed dancer was too patriotic even to condone defection. The State Department refuses to let Changteh stay in the US; Amanda offers him to marry her and stay, despite Marks warning she may be manipulated by a murderer...