A young woman who disappeared into the inky black night... A retired schoolteacher stabbed to death in broad daylight...Two women butchered in a small-town beauty parlor... The three baffling murder cases are linked only by a perplexing lack of motive, then LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware are called to the scene of a bizarre `crime'. A stolen car has been anonymously returned to its owner, undamaged and unblemished - except for a tiny, solitary bloodstain. This miniscule clue is enough to set the pair on a hunt for a multiple killer, from the well-heeled centre of LA society to its desperate edges, even as far as New York where their search thaws out a long-cold case. The killer, however, proves to be a fleeting shape-shifter, defying identification - and to unmask him, Alex and Milo will have to confront the true face of murderous compulsion...