Elaina McCord's dream of being an FBI profiler is threatened by her very first case-investigating a string of murders near a Texas beach resort. The victims, all young women, were drugged and brutally murdered, their bodies abandoned in desolate marshland. Elaina's hunch-met with disbelief by local police-is that these are only the latest offerings from a serial killer who has been perfecting his art for years, growing bolder and more cunning with each strike.