| Director | Roberto Faenza |
|---|---|
| Genre | LGBT-related film, drama film, thriller film |
| Runtime | 107 min |
| Country | Italy |
Corrupt NYPD narcotics detectives Fred O'Connor and Bob Carvo spend their illegal earnings on an apartment, viewing it as an investment. However, friction forms between them, as Carvo feels guilty about their scams and wants to abandon their association, asking O'Connor to pay him his share of the apartment so he can sell it, despite O'Connor's reluctance.
O'Connor begins to notice a young man who follows him. The man eventually confronts O'Connor inside the secret apartment, claiming to be the perpetrator of various murders against members of the Narcotics Division, dubbed by the media as the "Copkiller". O'Connor dismisses his assertions due to his small stature and apparent physical weakness. The man gives his name as Fred Mason, but O'Connor cannot match the name to any on-record description. Mason threatens to go to the authorities about O'Connor's apartment, thereby exposing his corruption. Carvo insists on letting Mason go, and O'Connor seemingly agrees, paying Carvo his share of the apartment. O'Connor keeps Mason captive in its bathroom, binding him and reinforcing the door with a deadbolt.
Hoping to intimidate Mason into keeping silent, O'Connor tries to garner him into revealing details about his personal life. Mason eventually claims that his grandmother, a wealthy heiress, is looking for him, and his discovery and that O'Connor's exposure is inevitable. Based on news reports, O'Connor determines that Mason's real name is Leo Smith, and tracks down his grandmother Margaret on Staten Island. Margaret says that Leo came under her care after his parents' death, but felt guilty about the wealth he was now entitled to, and developed a self-loathing complex that led him to compulsively confess to heinous crimes he had no involvement in, seeking retribution over his self-inflicted guilt. O'Connor uncovers a secret tape recording by Leo that states his intention to confront O'Connor, thus revealing his location.
O'Connor returns to the apartment and destroys the tape but is confronted by Carvo who has discovered his scheme. Holding O'Connor at gunpoint, Carvo demands that he release Leo. O'Connor responds by striking him and knocking his head on a toilet seat. Telling Leo that he is still alive, he unties him and orders him to help transport his unconscious body to Central Park. Reiterating Leo's earlier claim to be the Copkiller, O'Connor orders him at gunpoint to slit Carvo's throat and kill him, making his death look like another one of the Copkiller's victims. Leo insists that he has never killed anyone, but eventually relents, only for O'Connor to pull the trigger. The gun misfires, and Leo takes the opportunity to flee. O'Connor realizes that Carvo's gun was unloaded.
O'Connor goes to work the next day wrought with guilt and paranoia, as investigators are baffled by the unusual circumstances of Carvo's death. Upon returning to the apartment, he is confronted by Leo. As Leo fled the scene of the murder, he is now suspected as either a witness or accomplice. O'Connor reluctantly allows Leo to stay in his apartment indefinitely. O'Connor's mental state further deteriorates as he descends into alcoholism, seeking comfort in the presence of Carvo's wife Lenore. She is a former fling of O'Connor's and still has feelings for him. Leo, meanwhile, sneaks out of the apartment to purchase a serrated knife identical to the one used by the Copkiller, and hides it in O'Connor's kitchen.
Leo chastises O'Connor for seeing Lenore, claiming that his feelings of guilt make a confession to her unavoidable. The two plot to murder her, Leo goading him by threatening to go the police. While O'Connor goes to Lenore's house, Leo dresses as a picture of his father and retrieves a hidden gym bag from a subway station locker. At her apartment, O'Connor cannot go through with Lenore's murder. He gives her Carvo's gun and confesses to the secret arrangement between the two, while falsely claiming that the apartment is far away from Central Park.
Upon returning to the apartment, a disheveled O'Connor finds the phone line cut and Leo bound and gagged in the bathtub. Untying him and trying to find the intruder in the house, he is instead confronted by Lenore, who berates him for lying to her and accuses him of killing Carvo. Leo emerges and claims that O'Connor is the Copkiller, held him hostage, and planned to kill both him and Lenore. She goes outside to call the police, while Leo reveals himself as the true Copkiller, having manipulated O'Connor from the very beginning to frame him. He gives O'Connor the knife and tells him to finish it, before dumping his killing paraphernalia from his gym bag into the closet. With nowhere to run, O'Connor slits his own throat just as Lenore and police backup burst in.