A recently released mental patient from the Fishkill Correctional Facility and a failed doctoral student in English Literature has convinced his psychiatrists that he has been rehabilitated. That was anything but the truth. Now he wants revenge against all those who he feels ruined his academic future by dismissing his dissertation project as utter nonsense. Years of court-ordered imprisonment had not tamped down his desire to pay back his tormentors. Thus begins another round of serial killings that seems to plague New York City with increasing regularity. The killer leaves behind clues that have a distinctly Medieval flare which causes newly-promoted Inspector Mag Goldman, head of the Homicide Bureau of the NYPD, to enlist the aid of his longtime friend, Professor Bradley Davison. Brad Davison, Chairman of the History Department at Queens College, had assisted the police in solving four previous serial killing cases. Since his specialty was Medieval History, Goldman thinks that in deciphering the clues to this latest crime, Professor Davison could be a great help in capturing the murderer. But can he figure out the identity of the killer before he commits yet another brutal murder?