A serial killer is kidnapping young women and leaving their often headless bodies in public venues.  The perpetrator is careful to avoid leaving traceable evidence but ritualistically inserts a signature token into each victim.  This token represents the Special Agents only repeatable clue.  Time is of the essence, as the perp's established pattern suggests that another killing is about to occur.  The search has taken the Agent from his home office of San Francisco to the Big Apple, where he enlists the aid of an attractive but reluctant forensic psychologist, as the Bureau's profiler has unintentionally lead him astray.  The association sets the psychologist up for the kind of danger that she sought to avoid by choosing to treat non-violent clients.  But their relationship quickly segues to a non-professional form that threatens to subject the Agent to a world of unrelenting guilt. While the psychologist's advice proves invaluable, she could not have guessed that she, unknowingly, has been in contract with the terrifying, interstate monster.