Director Kim Bong-han weaves a web of intrigue around a gritty police procedural that is a fervent outcry against political malevolence in the mantle of a nail-biting thriller. Korea, 1987. A time of political upheaval, student protests, and bad haircuts. Sung-jin is a scrappy, hard-boiled veteran police detective who nabs the prime suspect in a recent rash of murders. Hailed as South Korea’s first serial killer case, the arrest is a coup for his career. However, as officials from the national intelligence service bring him into their fold, he slowly realizes that something's rotten. Meanwhile a crafty journalist friend tips him off that the mentally challenged suspect may be a patsy to distract from government corruption and a scandal of epic proportions. Faced with an über-villain in the form of devious intelligence mastermind Kyo-nam, Sung-jin is forced to single-handedly oppose the ominous powers-that-be against all the odds.