When a former student bungles the investigation of a mother-daughter double murder, clinical psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin discovers a link between the case and a series of escalating attacks. A mother and her teenage daughter are found murdered in a remote coastal home, one defiled by multiple stab wounds and the other posed like Sleeping Beauty waiting for her prince. When a former student trades on O'Loughlin's reputation and jeopardizes the police inquiry, Joe is drawn into the case. Discovering a link to a series of vicious attacks in which the victims are choked unconscious and brutally scarred, Joe must stop a ruthless and brash criminal who has apparently graduated to murder.