Late at night, a young woman named Vickie frantically buzzes the intercom of a palatial beach house, imploring the owner to let her in. She's holding a manila envelope. Vickie turns around to find someone she recognizes wielding a knife at her. The unseen individual chases Vickie down a steep embankment behind the house and stabs her to death beside a rundown trailer on the beach – a nude beach. The killer proceeds to take the envelope from Vickie's dead hands. At the crime scene, Natalie, Capt. Stottlemeyer, and Lt. Disher attempt to distract Monk from seeing the naked bystanders. They're temporarily successful, and Monk is able to deduce that Vickie was clutching something when she died...