After winning $6.2 million in the 1976 New York State Lottery, he is arrested for throwing rocks at a church. He then tells his story at the police station.

Two Los Angeles police detectives, cynical veteran Malloy and cocky rookie Dietz, hunt for a serial killer, an ex-cop named Taylor, whom randomly chooses his victims from a phone directory.

Innocent people are brutally killed on the streets of New York by a uniformed police officer. A young cop, Jack Forrest, finds himself marked as the chief suspect after his wife is murdered.