Four teenagers go missing in the small Canadian town of Algonquin Bay. The investigation reaches a dead end, and the police are ready to archive the case. Everyone agrees with this, except Detective John Cardinal, who, with his persistence, only achieves that he is fired from the homicide department. It is then that the mutilated body of thirteen-year-old Katie Pine is discovered. But even now the Cardinal remains alone: no one in this patriarchal wilderness is ready to admit that the most monstrous of maniacs is operating here and the next victim is in his hands.