THE GREATEST PERFORMANCE IS THE ONE THAT ACHIEVES MADNESS…” Tokyo. A serial killer known as the Doll Maker is stalking Kabuki-cho, preying on the prostitutes that work in the city’s notorious red light district. Obsessed with obscene fantasies and terrifying visions of an apocalyptic holocaust, the murderer is a divinely-inspired psychopath who stages his crimes as elaborate rituals incorporating elements of the occult, Buddhist doctrine and kabuki theatre.

Takeshi Harada, a disgraced former police officer, now working as a private detective on the fringes of the law, is hired by a powerful yakuza crime boss to track down the elusive killer. The investigation leads Harada through the neon netherworld of the Tokyo vice trade—its love hotels, image clubs and pink salons—and a series of encounters with dangerous gangsters, streetwise prostitutes and corrupt cops. Embroiled in a world of sex, violence and murder, Harada embarks on an odyssey of revenge and personal redemption, culminating in a climactic life-or-death confrontation with the Doll Maker—and a final chilling act of bloody, symbolic justice…