Gruesomely mangled corpses and a murderer straight out of the darkest nightmare
Frankfurt in the year 1800: three unusually disfigured corpses terrify the city. Rumours of religious ritual murders are doing the rounds. Only two do not succumb to the old superstition: newspaper editor Johann and Manon, whose father, a forensic pathologist, performs an autopsy on the remains of the murdered victims.
The two realise that the crimes bear the bloody signature of a notorious murderer – a figure straight out of the darkest nightmare. They call him ‘the eel’ because he was once critically injured and his wounds could only be healed thanks to the scales of an eel. But the eel was executed years ago and Johann himself witnessed the beheading. By the time Manon and he uncover the true background, it is almost too late for both of them …