California, 1985--Four children and young teacher Anne Navarre make a gruesome discovery: a partially buried female body, her eyes and mouth glued shut. A serial killer is at large, and the very bonds that hold their idyllic town together are about to be tested to the breaking point.

Tasked with finding the killer, FBI investigator Vince Leone employs a new and controversial FBI technique called "profiling," which plunges him into the lives of the four children--and the young teacher whose need to uncover the truth is as intense as his own.

But as new victims are found and pressure from the media grows, Vince and Anne find themselves circling the same small group of local suspects, unsure if those who suffer most are the victims themselves--or those close to the killer, blissfully unaware that someone very near to them is a murderous psychopath...