Haunting the Baltic nation of Latvia is a creeping monster. The Creeper is a sadist. The victims are women in their twenties who share two physical characteristics, a secret tattoo and another unmentionable. Into the forest the creeping monster drags each captive to perform his cruel ritual. A matchbook cover is found at a crime scene that says "Sioux Falls, South Dakota." A Lutheran missionary, Samantha Norlunder, is missing. Her brother Luke does postgraduate work at a Lutheran college near Sioux Falls, where he also teaches. His girlfriend, Constance, has begun a prison ministry at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. Luke is compelled to travel to Latvia in search of his sister, leaving Constance behind. Much of Latvia is still pagan and Luke indulges himself in Latvian women and drink. He is not ready to settle down and marry Constance; too seductive are the pleasures of the flesh. A stalker begins menacing Constance, a dark figure from the past, who threatens to reveal an ugly secret about her that no one must know. Meanwhile, the Creeper continues to horrify Latvia. Luke and a lady with whom he has fallen deeply in love stumble across The Creeper's den in the mediaeval city of Riga, witnessing a chamber of horrors Beloved persons perish before The Creeper is found out. Fate plays a double hand in the shocking denouement of this romantic but cruel tale."