A small seaside town is shattered with a series of inexplicable gruesome murders. Children are found dead, having disappeared from their parents’ hold in full sight often in public. All dead bodies bear the same wound – a tiny hole in the ear, inflicted by a sharp object.

Olga Serbinova, a local psychotherapist specializing in obsessive syndromes, gets approached by her school friend (and a once teenage flame) Andrei, a police officer in charge of the investigation. Andrei asks Olga to compile a psychological profile of the serial killer and to search for possible matches among her patients – the town is small, and Olga is one of the very few practicing specialists.

The more Olga learns about the sinister case, the more clues point to a particular patient of hers, a smart but spoiled student brat from a well-to-do family, Vadim Nishenko. Vadim is obsessed with violence, he runs a Youtube channel video-documenting eerie tortures of stray animals, and he seems oddly informed about confidential detail pertaining to the murders. Considering the severity of the case and her strong suspicions, Olga reports her client to the police. During the arrest Vadim gets shot by the police, officers later giving a perplexing and hallucinogenic account of the events.

As Olga continues her investigation, she consults with her skeptical boyfriend who refers her to another odd character, apparently the town’s criminal authority who links the series of murders with an ancient cult of the local evil demon Sabnach, the demon of graveyards and decay. He reassures Olga that no serial killer could operate in town, while local historical archives would furnish Olga with proves of similar recurrent cases over years. Andrei is forced to close the case by the town’s shadowy moguls – he gets a reward for solving the case and eliminating the serial killer, a psychic teenager Vadim. However Andrei feels dissatisfied. Just like Olga, he suspects there is more to the case than a sick teenager’s rage. However, Andrei’s attempts to continue his investigation prompt his suspension.

Olga begins to experience weird hallucinations and horror dreams, and is forced to return to the case. A terrifying realization dawns on her – there is in fact someone else linked to all these cases, who knew the families of victims and could be at the crime scene at the time of murders: that is, her own self.

Eerie and gripping, this horror whodunit will linger with you long after you finish the book. It introduces a true master of the genre and an original voice to all fans of Stephen King and William Peter Blatty.