Helen is an agoraphobiac recovering from a nervous breakdown. She hides inside her apartment, connected to the Internet while downing pills and booze in roughly equal quantities. She's useless to herself or anyone else. Then the police, led by Mary Jane Monahan (Holly Hunter) and Reuben Goetz (Dermot Mulroney), arrive at her door. They need help tracking a serial killer who has been terrorizing young women in the San Francisco area, and who better to go to than an expert with 20 years of having "serial killers on the brain"? Although at first reluctant, Helen eventually relents and lends her experience to the investigation. Her first contribution is to identify the killer as a copycat. He is mimicking the great serial killers -- the Boston Strangler, Son of Sam, the Hillside Strangler, Dahmer, and Bundy -- and there's no way to tell who or how he will murder next.
