The circle closes in on Herman Strauss, the Dagger Killer, that is to say the mysterious serial killer who is terrorizing New York. Martin finds himself face to face with the incarnation of one of the basic characters in a horror story: a real vampire. But Herman Strauss isn’t simply a ‘monster’; he’s a man, the victim of a curse, who lives a life of desperation and agony. An unbearable state which, in the end, comes to a dramatic conclusion.