A frustrated big city black cop in a white town must track down a vicious serial killer, while a passionate young girl, in love with both suspects, is afraid she might be the next victim.

SYNOPSIS:

Winter in upstate New York. Deranged teenager in a ski mask takes an ax, murders a girl who rejects him, along with her fiance and their families. Burns down the house to cover his crime.

Nine years later. Winter in a nearby town. Art and Ed, late-20s, both date a younger girl, Nancy. Both men work at a local supermarket. They argue. The market owner breaks up their fight and slaps them around. At night, with the owner alone, someone in a ski mask attacks him, throws him on a band saw and severs his leg. He sets fire to the store, and the ski mask killer leaves the dying man.

Sheriff Wiggins, a black cop from Chicago in this white small town, investigates the murder. The only one he can relate to is another fish-out-of-water, the British coroner, who tries to help him solve the case.

When Nancy’s lesbian friend declares her love and is rejected, she runs off. The ski-mask killer trails the girl to her house. They battle, and he hangs her with a telephone cord. Then puts the house to flames to eliminate any clues.

An annoying Puerto Rican wine worker points out the similar case nine years ago. Suspects Art and Ed hear his theory. The ski mask killer assaults the Puerto Rican and lowers him into a 20-foot vat of grapes. Starts to set a fire, but gets interrupted.

Panic erupts in the town.

Stores sell guns, protective equipment, burglar alarms. The Coroner escorts Sheriff Wiggins down Main Street.

He shows him where makeshift tents have sprung up, hawking brass knuckles, defense classes, carnival food, watch groups, bizarre souvenir t-shirts and ski-masks about the killer. A media circus.

Wiggins realizes he left a big city police job to become a cop in this small town hornet’s nest.

Officers even organize a pool to guess the date for the next victim. There's no evidence against Art and Ed, not even when Sheriff Wiggins puts them through a lineup. Desperate, Wiggins imposes a curfew where everyone is off the streets by nightfall. He orders round-the-clock police patrols until they catch the killer.

Art and Ed are intensely jealous, as Nancy wavers in her affections, afraid one of them might actually kill her. Nancy lives with her protective aunt, who chases the two men away. When the aunt is alone, the ski mask killer surprises her in the bathroom. Slams the toilet seat on her head and crushes her skull. Sets fire to the curtains.

Wiggins stumbles onto the murder scene and chases the killer into the town courthouse. He pursues him onto the outside cupola, to a huge statue of Lady Justice. The two struggle. The sun sets, as across the street, officers stream out from the police station.

The killer strangles Sheriff Wiggins against the statue. In the dark, a deputy fires a blind shot. Wiggins falls, tumbles to the ground, dead. The killer escapes.

The next day, grief-stricken from her aunt's murder, Nancy isolates at a lakeside park. A man approaches, face covered by a scarf. He tells her he's not the killer, but is there to warn her. She panics, claws at him. The scarf falls, reveals healed burn scars.

Art intervenes to rescue Nancy. He stabs and kills the man. And recognizes him. Sole survivor of the murders and fire nine years ago.

Nancy realizes Art is the ski-mask killer. She runs to a tree trimmer who uses a chain saw and wood chipper to prune bushes. Art kills him.

Ed’s car squeals into the park, as Art stabs Nancy. He and Art battle. Ed throws Art backwards, who stumbles awkwardly into the still-running wood chipper. Metal blades chop and disintegrate the lower part of his body.

A Deputy comes onto the scene, as Ed pulls the knife from Nancy’s back. She dies. When he looks at what’s left of the dead Art, the Deputy assumes Ed is the killer and arrests him.

The coroner arrives and surveys the carnage, as the patrol car takes Ed away.

HAPPILY NEVER AFTER