Henry Muller packs the apartment of his recently deceased mother on the Lower East Side. A lonely man, he watches Grace Purefoy through the window, a young girl from the neighborhood on her way uptown to sell drugs for dealer, Justin. Later that night, Grace tells Justin she's done selling drugs. Justin objects and Grace runs for it. As if on cue, Henry opens his door and Grace slips inside. A familiar face from younger days, Grace trusts Henry. She takes a hot shower and by way of thanks, kisses Henry. The simple kiss unleashes years of repressed desire in Henry, and when Grace names Henry for what he is - a pervert - he kills her in a rage of silent fury. Detectives Nichols and Eames must track down a killer who is surprisingly adept, and too close for comfort.

With the banks failing and public discontent high, aging revolutionary Axel Kaspers believes the time is ripe to galvanize public reaction and spark a populist uprising. With his radical daughter Birgit and disciple Mel, Axel orchestrates the kidnapping of Continental Bankcorp president, Peter Evans. However, the carefully planned carjacking goes bad when Evans resists with surprising force and hothead Mel shoots and kills one of the nation's most powerful bankers. Detectives Nichols and Eames pursue a surviving member of the radical Baader-Meinhof gang as he stages a revolutionary terrorist campaign.