A young man named Richard visits Beverly, a local prostitute, and runs into her boyfriend, a police officer named Ryan, on the way into Beverly's home. Richard and Beverly get into an argument, which ends with Richard accidentally shoving Beverly through a window, killing her. Richard cleans up the scene, evades Ryan when he returns from running errands, and hitchhikes to New York City after disposing of Beverly's body.
Richard acquires a room in a dingy motel, gets a job at a bottling company, befriends a neighboring drug dealer named Candice, and spies on Nancy, a prostitute who lives across from Candice. Intoxicated by what he felt during Beverly's death, Richard murders a woman named Lucy, torturing and humiliating her beforehand. Ryan, suspicious of Beverly's disappearance, heads to New York in search of her, enlisting the aid of the local police, and passing photographs of her around at clubs and bars. During the course of his investigation, Ryan spots Richard in a restaurant, and hears a broadcast announcing that Beverly's remains were uncovered. Concluding that Richard probably killed Beverly, Ryan finds out where he is staying, and heads there.
At the motel, Richard gets into a fight with Candice and kills her and her dog. Ryan finds Candice's corpse, and sees Richard at Nancy's through the window Richard broke when he threw the body of Candice's dog out it. Richard attacks Nancy, but she fights him off with the help of a straight razor, and a pair of pimps. Ryan happens upon the scene, grabs Richard, and throws him out a window to his death.
