Florida's Gulf Coast community of Sereno Key has been shaken to the core by a grisly ritualistic murder. Though an arrest is quickly made, Detective Louis Kincaid feels strangely unsettled. His uncertainty is confirmed as a second body is discovered, and then a third each branded with the bizarre trademarks of a serial killer whose blood lust is growing. Now in a race against time, Kincaid will do whatever is necessary to stop the slaughter.