James Bowan, the first victim, is on the hunt for sexual gratification in 1979. He meets a strange woman in a bar. In his apartment she is quite interested in a scrapbook in which he's collected a variety of memorabilia. Raymond Turko is an inspector with San Francisco PD. He is assigned the Bowan murder even though it's technically his day off. His partner, Dominic Mazuti and he go to the scene of the murder to find out there isn't much there besides Bowan's corpse. As the story progresses we learn how Turko tries to fit information about Bowan into some sort of pattern. We also get a glimpse of Turko's home life, his wife and children. Three other murders occur that bewilder Turko and Mazuti. There appear to be items associated with each of the victims that have been removed from the crime scenes. All the various threads of the story-the whys and hows-are finally tied up with a surprise ending.