"The Garbageman" (so-called by the media) is "taking out the garbage" - killing people he considers unworthy. Into the task force created to catch him comes profiler Andy Moran, who is not all that popular with some of his colleagues due to his alleged lack of action at a bank hold-up in which a police officer was badly wounded. Andy recruits beautiful university linguist Meredith Anderson to analyse the taunting phone calls the Garbageman makes to him over the task force's lack of success. That lack of success, coupled with media criticism, creates tensions within the task force, leading to operational errors and explosive personal confrontations. But methodically, painstakingly, the task force moves closer and closer to their quarry, discovering that the Garbageman has an ultimate target. That target is Andy!