Anna Manni is a policewoman trying to capture a vicious serial rapist and killer. The problem is that she suffers from "Stendhal's syndrome", a psychosomatic disease that gives her dizziness and hallucinations when she is exposed to the sight of paintings and artistic masterpieces. When the maniac lures her into a trap inside Florence's famous Uffizi museum, her troubles are just beginning...

In Rome, after the abduction of a British tourist, the police inspector Anna Mari is contacted by the criminal, who self-entitles The Card Player, challenging the police department to dispute a video poker with him where the prize would be the life of the victim. The Chief of Police refuses to participate and the victim is tortured and killed in front of an Internet web cam. The British detective John Brennan is assigned to investigate the case and when another woman is kidnapped, they invite the addicted player Remo to play for the police. Anna and John lead the investigation trying to disclose who might be the serial-killer.

Manipulative police lieutenant Phoebe McNamara is a success as hostage negotiator, but drove ex-husband Roy squires away, so she and their toddler daughter Carly live with her devoted ma Essie. Systematic self-righteous verbal abuse of uniformed cops leads to a grim feud with one of them, cocky Arnie Meeks. Captain David McVee and businessman-philanthropist Duncan Swift, her patient lover, side with her and the assumption Meeks is behind a violence wave targeting her, but that proves dead-wrong.