A couple gets married on a hot-air balloon. They kiss, and then bungee-jump off the balloon into the gorge below. Their bliss is short lived, however, as a decaying corpse waits for them at the bottom of the gorge. Booth and Brennan are called in, and Brennan realizes that the victim was thrown over the cliff post-mortem. This was murder.

At the lab, random-fact-spouting Vincent Nigel-Murray is assisting. The victim was undergoing dental restoration, and was punched in the nose before he died. The time of death was two to five days ago, which is strange because the body shows a higher rate of decomposition. Vincent notices that the victim's flesh is moving. Cam cuts into the skin, and foam oozes from her incision. Cam presses the emergency alert button as the Squints cover their mouths to avoid breathing potential toxins. The Jeffersonian is in lockdown. The body is encased in an isolation table, and Cam insists that no one touch the body until they identify the mysterious foam.

The victim is identified via his dental records as Alex Newcomb. Alex's brother is listed as his emergency contact. He works at a used-car lot, Jungle Jim's Pre-Owned Paradise. Booth and Brennan go there, where perky saleswoman Maureen Perot ⎯ the "Bwana of the Month" ⎯ tries to sell them a car. It takes Booth flashing his badge to get her to turn off the sales pitch, and point them towards Chet Newcomb. His wife Vanessa, a seamstress, gives Chet his medication: desmopressin, which indicates kidney problems. Chet is distraught to hear that Alex was murdered. Alex worked for Jungle Jim, but he quit a few weeks ago and went to the Criterion Car Dealership across the street. Alex had quite the fight with Jungle Jim when he left. Vincent notices fractures that suggest a fall, but it is not the cause of death. He and Cam find that the foam is coming from inside the bones themselves. Cam is annoyed with his constant spouting of unrelated facts, but Vincent explains that doing so helps him to concentrate. Booth interrogates Kevin Howard, whose car's brakes failed while he drove it off the lot; his four-year-old son was injured. Howard is still emotional over the incident, but he didn't kill Alex. He would never leave his son without a father. Brennan, observing Booth, wonders what makes him so good at interrogations. Sweets explains that Booth has to manipulate people to get answers. Brennan wants Sweets to teach her how to interrogate suspects. Sweets is dubious, but agrees.

At the lab Vincent works as quickly as he can, trying to find the murderer before they lose the bones. Hodgins enters having analyzed particulates from the clothing. There was "lust dust," strawberry glitter, on the victim's pants. He had a lap dance before he died. Brennan accompanies Booth to the Imperial Showgirls Strip Club, eager to observe his next interrogation. After asking around, Booth finds Strawberry Lust, the dancer who wears lust dust. She begins to give Booth a lap dance. Booth is momentarily tongue-tied. He regains his composure enough to ask his questions. Alex Newcomb was one of her regular clients. She danced for him on Thursday, but he got into a fight and was thrown out. He fought with his co-worker Buddy. Brennan begins her training with Sweets, who starts by testing whether she can recognize simple emotions. Brennan fails to identify confusion. Sweets instructs her that the proper response to confusion is empathy to the person's situation. She correctly identifies anger, but doesn't respond to it well.

Hodgins notices that the skull is melting. Vincent hurriedly prepares a C-Ring magnifier to enlarge their view of the body; but when he plugs it in, it shorts out. The lab once again goes into lockdown as flames begin to engulf the body. Later, Brennan realizes that if light caused the ignition, then the body was emitting some kind of gas. Cam deduces that it is hydrogen gas. At Criterion Car Dealership, Booth takes an Audi R8 for a test drive. Buddy agrees to go along. Booth drives so fast that Buddy fears for his life, and for the car. He spills everything. He punched Alex Newcomb in the nose because Alex stole his client. They were both thrown out of the strip club. Alex got into a cab, and told the driver to take him to Jungle Jim's. He was going to get his old job back; he felt guilty for leaving his brother to fend for himself.

Vincent tries to give Brennan an update, but everything he wants to show her has dissolved. The Squints realize that the bones are dissolving faster than the body because the bones contain calcium. Hodgins concludes that hydrofluoric acid must be destroying the bones. Hodgins tries to combat the process with antacid, which contains magnesium hydroxide. This seems to work at first, but a hard, white shell quickly forms over the body, petrifying it… and the lab once again goes into lockdown. At the FBI Brennan begs Booth for a shot at interrogating Maureen Perot alone. Booth relents, but she's not ready: the interrogation goes awkwardly. Brennan doesn't pick up on Maureen's jokes, and the two of them don't quite understand each other. Booth coaches her through an earpiece until they have what they need: Alex was helping Chet increase his sales. That is what caused Alex to drop to Bwana Number Three.

A possible cause of death is found: there appears to be a mark left by the murder weapon. The only way to know for sure is to crack open the body. Hodgins confirms that the victim was covered in highly concentrated hydrofluoric acid. He also found fecal matter on the victim's shoes. It belongs to a Capuchin monkey, just like the one Jungle Jim has. An FBI Forensic Team combs Jungle Jim's. Jungle Jim is not pleased, but they have a warrant. It's not long before the techs discover blood. In the garage Booth and Brennan see traces of blood on the floor. Brennan notices a barrel of Gleam-O, a tire cleaner. It is 60% hydrofluoric acid. Someone killed Alex in this garage, and doused his body in Gleam-O. Brennan, Booth, and Cam speculate that the killer probably doused the body in acid thinking it would dissolve instantly. When that didn't happen, they had to get rid of the body some other way. Hence, it went into the gorge. The only employee at Jungle Jim's that night was Jungle Jim, but there is no evidence to suggest that Jungle Jim used his car to dump the body.

Cam and Vincent are unable to determine a murder weapon from the X-rays. Frustrated, Cam grabs a club and moves to crack open the body. Vincent stops her: this could destroy the evidence, not free it. Cam convinces him there is no alternative, just as Angela appears. No one thought to ask her, but she has a solution. Angela has been virtually "re-growing" the bones on her computer. While Angela works, Brennan laments her attempt to question Maureen. Even after all she learned from Sweets, she couldn't interrogate like Booth. Angela tells Brennan she can't learn what Booth can do. He is a natural. He has instincts. Booth lets Brennan be the smart one. She should let him be the one with the people skills. Brennan thinks about this as Angela shows her the virtual skeleton. Her rendering reveals that the murder weapon was a pair of tailor shears. At Jungle Jim's, Booth and Brennan search Vanessa Newcomb's van. They find a large pair of tailor shears. Vanessa breaks down. She slept with Jungle Jim so Chet could keep his job. Alex caught them when he turned up to get his job back. He was going to tell Chet, so she killed him. She did it all for her husband.

At the Founding Fathers Bar, Booth tries to make Brennan feel better about her interrogation. Brennan admits that Booth is better than she is with people. Booth is touched that she acknowledged his skill. He brings her outside to show her the Audi R8, which Buddy has let him borrow. Brennan wants to drive. Booth reluctantly agrees to let her go once around the block. Brennan doesn't get that far. She immediately causes a traffic jam. Booth gets out of the Audi and into a cab. Brennan can handle this one on her own.