Like the original CSI, CSI: Miami is a police procedural about a team of forensic scientists. It is set in present-day Miami-Dade County (which mainly includes unincorporated Miami-Dade, as well as Miami, Kendall, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Opa-Locka, Key Biscayne, etc.).

The team investigates mysterious and unusual deaths to determine who killed whom and why, and also solves other serious crimes (such as rape). In seasons one and two the show had two cases per episode just like its sister shows but from season three onward the show frequently focuses on a single case in each episode, or an investigation branched off from the main case (for example, episode 305, 'Legal,' in which a homicide in a nightclub is solved by Wolfe and Calleigh, while Horatio and Delko crack a prostitution ring being run by the nightclub's owner), as opposed to the two-cases-per-episode storytelling of its sister shows, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and CSI: NY. Many of its characters have appeared on all three CSI related shows because of the two-part episodes.