After a heated argument with her military police turned cop husband, Lawson (Michael Dudikoff); Russian immigrant house wife, Lara (Savina Gersak) storms off into the night convinced he's more married to his job than her. On her drive to a friend's house, she takes pity on a mourning hitchhiker Justin Mckay (Mark Hamill), desperately searching for a ride. Her offer of a lift to him plunges her into a night of pure terror as Justin is seriously disturbed, twisted by a tortured childhood which ended in being made to see his little sister's shocking murder and mutilation at the hands of his brutal alcoholic mother (who took a butcher knife to her head and used it like a comb) who systematically slays anyone who harms or offends him on a murderous impulse (psychology), as he captures their dying moments on his Polaroid camera.