The team travels to Kansas City, Kansas where three members of the upper middle class Yamada family - its parents and teen-aged daughter - are found murdered and dumped at the side of the road, with its adolescent son, Scott Yamada, still missing. The deaths are meant to look like a murder/suicide committed by the father. The bodies were reported by a drifter who disappeared shortly thereafter. Another upper middle class Kansas City area family - the Acklins - who have a similar family make-up, have also just gone missing. There are no direct ties between the two families. Although father Mike Acklin was in the middle of a lawsuit, their family life seems as perfect as the Yamadas,... at least on the surface. The team discovers that both families went to great lengths to present themselves as being perfect to the public eye while being truly dysfunctional. Uncovering other similarities between the families and finding the drifter may lead to the team discovering motive, if the Acklins were abducted (or if Mike walked them all away because of the lawsuit) and if so how, and thus a hopefully still alive Scott and the entire Acklin family. Meanwhile, Hotch receives some news from Beth which may affect their relationship.
—Huggo