Joe is in control of everything in his simple life, including his day job at the police department and his "night work." He isn't bothered by the daily news reports of the Christchurch Carver, who, they say, has murdered seven women. Joe knows the Carver only killed six, and he's determined to find the copy cat killer. He's going to punish him for the one, then frame him for the other six. All he needs now is to take care of all the women who keep getting in his way; his domineering mother is one. Then there is Sally, the maintenance worker who sees him as a replacement for her dead brother; and the mysterious Melissa, the only woman to have ever understood him, but whose fantasies of blackmail and torture don't have a place in Joe's investigation.