In the late 19th century, a young woman moves to Amsterdam with her family and tries to make a living. Preyed upon by various men, she nonetheless rises in society.

A mysterious diver hiding in Amsterdam’s canal system embarks on a rampage of gruesome murders, terrifying city officials and leaving few clues for the city’s best detective, who doesn’t suspect that both his new girlfriend and twelve-year-old daughter may be closer than he is to finding the killer.

Isabelle is a famous and beloved actress from the Netherlands, who disappears when on Holiday in Belgium. She has been kidnapped by bartender Jeanne Bitor, an artist with a disfigured face. Jeanne is very bitter about her ‘ugly’ appearance, and she is obsessed with the process of dying and deterioration of animals and humans. Therefore, she abducts Isabelle and starves her to death, while painting her in different phases of the process.

A successful lawyer finds out that she has a half-brother who is imprisoned in a secure hospital after he brutally murdered his neighbor and their baby.