In Part 1: Confession. Father T, a priest in a church in a mid-sized city is asked to handle the confessional one Saturday afternoon. Little does he suspect what the last "sinner" - a young man - will confess: that he is a serial killer who, for some reason unknown even to himself, now seeks contact with the Church which he had abandoned years before. The priest is immediately struck by the young man's intelligence and articulateness. Indeed, this wayward son raises many questions and philosophical notions regarding humans, religion, society's need for religion and - God. His thoughts shatter Father T's notions and beliefs. Father T nevertheless seeks to help, to save the young man who is a reflection of his secret self. In Part 2: Inquisition. A young female student is brutally murdered while jogging with her boyfriend and another friend. Two police detectives are immediately convinced that Mike, the boyfriend, is the killer, and subject him to a 16-hour "interrogation" after which the youth "confesses" to the crime he never committed, but which he begins to suspect he may have perpetrated. Despite glaring contradictions and inadequacies during the two trials, Mike is found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison. This story is based on a true murder case which occurred in California in 1984 and delves deeply into questions of inculcated guilt and how people may be manipulated into confessing sins/crimes. The interrogation is based on the many pages of transcripts of those parts which were recorded. In Part 3: the reflections and ramblings of the loner-youth-turned-serial-killer, from early childhood to early adulthood. The portrait of a drifter, estranged socially and alienated psychologically, a "shadow of a shadow, a dream in daylight, a ghost in the wind," as he described himself to Father T.
