A decomposed hand is found in New York City, and investigators quickly tie it to a model named Ann Linn. The case lands on the desk of Lieutenant Fred Williams, Jack Hedley, a weary, hard-edged detective who has seen too many dead ends. He presses Ann’s nosy landlady, Mrs. Weissburger, and learns of a phone call Ann arranged with someone speaking in a strange, duck-like voice. The clue hints at a predator who doesn’t merely kill for noise—this killer taunts his victims and the city with a chilling signature.
On the Staten Island Ferry, another woman is brutally murdered by an unseen assailant, an act that confirms to the medical examiner that the killer operates with the same method as the first slaying and that he is left-handed. Williams goes to the press to warn the public about a possible serial killer on the loose, but the city’s chief of police clamps down, fearing mass panic. Williams, refusing to stay quiet, brings in Dr. Paul Davis, Michele Soavi, a perceptive psychotherapist, to help build a profile of the killer and guide the team through the mounting terror.
Meanwhile, in New York’s red-light district, Jane Lodge, Alexandra Delli Colli, attends a live sex show and secretly records the performances with a pocket tape recorder. She is watched by Mickey Scellenda, Howard Ross, a rough, dangerous man with two missing fingers. After the show, the killer murders the performer in her dressing room by stabbing her in the groin with a broken bottle. That same night, Williams receives a taunting call from the duck-voiced killer, this time revealing another murder in a way that needles the detective’s nerves.
A few days later, Fay Majors, Almanta Suska, is harassed on the subway and escapes into a seedy district. The unseen killer closes in, wounding her leg with a deep slash and driving her to a deserted cinema where she hallucinates a man repeatedly attacking her with a straight razor. She awakens in a hospital, where her boyfriend Peter Bunch, Andrea Occhipinti, visits and laughs off her nightmare. Fay shares her belief that the duck-voiced attacker and the subway stalker could be one and the same, especially after noticing the clue about the missing fingers.
Jane, who leads an open marriage and roams the city seeking sexual experiences, endures humiliation at a bar before leaving with Scellenda for a night of BDSM in a sleazy hotel. While Scellenda sleeps, Jane overhears a radio DJ announcing that the killer—now dubbed the “New York Ripper” by the press—has two missing fingers. In a panic, she slips away, only to be murdered later in the hotel hallway.
Williams narrows the suspect pool to Scellenda, a Greek immigrant with a history of sexual assault and drug abuse who fits the two-finger clue. Although Dr. Davis questions whether Scellenda could be intelligent enough to mastermind such killings, the detective’s suspicions seem validated when Scellenda assaults Fay at her home and is confronted by Peter. Williams receives a new warning from the Ripper about another potential victim and, after a misleading lead, discovers that Kitty, a prostitute Williams had previously questioned, is the next target.
The trail shifts when Scellenda is found dead, and the autopsy reveals he killed himself days before Kitty’s murder, effectively ruling him out as the Ripper. Dr. Davis completes a sharper profile: the killer is an intelligent young person who despises sexually liberated young women and has the ability to shadow suspected victims and manipulate the evidence to mislead the investigation. With Fay and Peter’s high intellect raising questions about their loyalties, Williams and Davis swing their attention toward Fay, Peter, and their household, racing to their home to detain anyone who might be implicated.
In a tense confrontation, Fay recognizes Peter Bunch as the Ripper’s true identity. A struggle erupts as the couple’s secrets threaten to unravel. Williams and Davis arrive just as Peter moves to harm Fay, and Williams shoots Peter in the face, ending his murderous spree. Davis consoles Fay, explaining that Peter’s resentment toward her—and other women who lived freely—drove his violent acts. Suzy, Peter’s terminally ill daughter, reaches out from her hospital room in a final, desperate bid to connect, but the moment arrives too late to change the outcome. The case closes with the uneasy sense that the killer’s ideology was rooted in power, control, and vengeance, leaving the city to pick up the pieces after a wave of fear that tested every edge of trust and justice.
