In their third mystifying case, Glaswegian police duo Anderson and Costello must solve the murder of a criminal with a mutilated face.

In the attic of a deserted tenement, the body of a criminal is found hanging with his face horribly mutilated. Investigating officers DI Anderson and DS Costello believe he was a suspect in a decade-old case: the rape and attempted murder of a young student. There are other similar cases on file. But the dead man didn't act alone, he had an accomplice in his crimes.

When another young woman is brutally attacked, Anderson and Costello suspect the accomplice has developed a taste for killing. To satisfy his lust he will kill again and again unless Anderson and Costello can stop him.