One after another, a drug dealer, a dancer and a jeweler became victims of an unknown killer - people who have nothing in common with each other. They are connected only by the crime weapon. They were all shot with a thirty-eight caliber Smith & Wesson. It looks like a maniac is operating, the kind that appear from time to time in a big city. Will the bloody spiral continue to unfold and who will be next? This is what Steve Carella and his fellow detectives from the famous 87th precinct have to find out.