Bradford, Northern England, 2009 - drug addicted prostitutes start to vanish from the streets of the city. Their families contact the police who put out a missing persons report but they do not reappear. It's not unusual for street workers to go missing in a big city but everything suddenly changes when the brazen murder of a woman is caught on the CCTV of a local block of flats. The killer is a 40-year-old local named Stephen Griffiths. He seems to be performing for the camera. His arrest reveals a truly horrifying story - a local PhD student of criminology who seeks fame through re-inventing himself as the most revolting, taboo-busting serial killer that he can create. He is responsible for the disappearance of the local prostitutes - victims in his quest to turn his dark fantasies into a grotesque reality.