Opening in a point of view, a murderer looks around the city of Amsterdam at night through the canals for which the city is famous. He sneaks into a Chinese restaurant's backdoor and steals a butcher knife while the cooks aren't looking. The killer finds his first victim in a local prostitute who, after refusing advances from a cab driver, gets thrown out of the cab. A bag lady watches from a distance as the killer plunges the knife into the hooker and drags her back into the water. The next morning, a tour boat on the canal collides with the body of the prostitute, who has been hung on one of the small bridges. As the tourists scream, the body drags on the top of the boat until an opening shows her bloodied body and face.