Jackson Daniels, investigative detective with the Knoxville Police Department, is called to the scene of a murder at a ritzy hotel in Knoxville. A dead man lies on the bed, above his mutilated body the words, Wayne's Dead, have been written. Jackson and his team of detectives ascertain fairly quickly that they are faced with a brutal serial killer who has been on the loose in the Southeast for the past twelve years. Choosing married, middle-aged attorneys as prey, the killer seduces them, murders them, and then mutilates the body afterwards, leaving the same message on the wall above the victims. Frustrated over the lack of evidence found at each scene, Jackson and his team frantically search for their perpetrator, never suspecting that the person they are trying to find has been with them from the start.