In the border region of Mexico, Arizona and New Mexico, where the Sonora Desert merges with the Chihuahua Desert, Sonora County, a new self-organized way of life, emerges. The city in Sonora - emerging from the desert soil as an economic and cultural center within a few years - becomes the vibrant focal point of this lifestyle and the symbol of the new community.

A heat wave lasting several months reduces all life to the limits of the bearable. The region is declared a disaster area.

Human organs are found in a dilapidated lodge in the Sierra. The body parts point to a serial killer who preserves his victims-young women between 25 and 35-in the manner of ancient Egyptian embalmers.

Cyd Alexander - flamboyant journalist with no sense of the rules at the county's leading media corporation - witnesses the discovery and, along with her rival Ruth Clark, gains access to the manhunt team.

Led by veteran profiler Frank Gillardi, an interdisciplinary team of sheriff's department, FBI, scientists and the two journalists sets out to hunt for the killer.

To outmaneuver Ruth, Cyd teams up with alternative anthropologist Ian Conrad of the local university and conducts her own research on the fringes of legality.

For the protagonists, a psychedelic foray begins through the abysses of the human soul and the hidden realms of their own past - guilt and the search for forgiveness. On the edge of delusion and reality, the investigation develops into a wild chase after a phantom. Where reality and fantasy merge, the events become a dream. But who is whose dream creature?

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