Born to a particularly nasty and hateful prostitute and a legless drunk, Henry Lee Lucas has plenty of reasons to be angryangry enough to murder his mother. But he doesnt stop with getting even for his mothers cruelty, which includes forcing Henry to watch her have sex with her Johns. After spending years in prison for his crime, using the time to study police procedure and review the crimes of other killers to learn why they got caught, Henry emerges with the knowledge he needs to snuff out innocent lives with virtual impunity.

Before long, Henry teams up with Ottis Toole, a twisted, remorseless human monster, and his niece, Becky. Tied to Toole by the fetters of his own sick desires and a real affection (or as real an affection as he can feel) for Becky, Henry accompanies Toole on a killing spree. As the corpses accumulate, law enforcement is powerless to stop the carnage. The killings dont fit a pattern. They have some elements in common but too many differences. Henry has learned his lessons well. Only two Texas Rangers see the real picture but, because of jurisdictional jealousies among law-enforcement agencies, they can do little except watch the death toll climb.

In the end, it is Henry himself who ends the killing. Or does he? Remorseful over stabbing Becky to death for nagging him, he confesses to hundreds of murders, but has he committed them? He doesnt mention Ottis. The Rangers have their doubts, but other officials just want to clear old cases. Theyre willing to believe anything Henry says and even feed him the information he needs to confess convincingly. The Rangers are left to wonderjust how many people has Henry Lee Lucas murdered, and will the rising tide of death actually ebb with Henry on death row? The answer is a grim commentary on human depravity and the blindness of people assigned the task of protecting the innocent.