Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone has a problem no officer of the law likes to face: dead bodies keep appearing but clues do not.

Let's take them in order. A man takes his dog out for a run on the beach, only to be discovered hours later - with two holes in his chest. A woman drives her Volvo to the store to do some grocery shopping, and is then found dead, her body crumpled behind her loaded shopping cart. A commuter takes a shortcut home from the train, and never makes it back to his house. And there's a fourth that comes close to Jesse personally.

Hunting down a serial killer is difficult and dangerous in any town, but in a town like Paradise, where the city's selectmen and the media add untold pressures, Jesse feels considerable heat. Already walking an emotional tightrope, he stumbles; he's spending too much time with the bottle, and with his ex-wife - neither of which helps him, or the case. The harder these outside forces push against him, the more Jesse retreats into himself, convinced - despite all the odds - that it's up to him alone to stop the killing.