After the death of his father, archaeology student Ben Rutherford inherits an 18th century mechanical device known as "Le Vaudo Mort". At a college party he flaunts the machine in front of a group of his closest friends and later discovers that the machine has a sinister past and may harbor supernatural powers. After class he returns to his dorm room to find that the contraption has been stolen. One by one, Ben's friends begin to die in strange and horrific circumstances. Now he must reunite with his estranged half-brother, Marcus, a forensic photographer, and delve deeper into their father's past to work out who is behind the grisly murders. As the terror mounts and the clues seem to suggest the unthinkable, a surprising twist will reveal the true identity of the killer...

In Seattle, the successful forensic psychiatrist and college professor Jack Gramm is in evidence since he was responsible for the condemnation of the serial killer Jon Forster, influencing the jury to sentence him to the death row. Jon accuses Jack of manipulation, inducing one witness and sister of one of his victims to testify against him. On the eve of Jon's execution, Jack receives a phone call telling him that he has only eighty-eight minutes of life, while a killer is copycatting Jon, killing women with the same "modus-operandi" and is investigated by Seattle Slayer Task Force. With the support of associate Shelly Barnes, an FBI agent, his friend Frank Parks, and his assistant Kim Cummings, Jack investigates some weird and problematic students, a security guard of the campus and the woman with whom he had one night stand.