When a routine traffic stop in Monterey, California erupts into a scene of horrific violence, the stunned local police are left with a disemboweled strawberry blond victim and an ingenious killer with multiple alternating personalities. FBI Special Agent E.L. Pender is convinced he has found the mystery man responsible for the disappearances of a dozen women. But before Pender can prove it, the suspect stages a cunning jailbreak and abducts his court-appointed psychiatrist, Irene Cogan.
In a house secluded on a ridge in Oregon, Irene must navigate through the minefield of her captor's various egos - male and female, brilliant and naive, murderous and passive - all of whom are dominated by Max, a seductive killer who views her as both his prisoner and his salvation. Irene knows that to survive, she must play along with Max's game of sexual perversion. Only then will she be able to strip back the layers to discover a chilling story of a shattered young boy - and all the girls he adored