Sandomierz is a picturesque town in southeastern Poland. Early one morning in spring, a woman's naked body is found outside a former synagogue. Someone has slashed her throat open- and it looks as if it was done with the enormous razor found lying nearby. A big shot prosecutor Teodor Szacki, who has just divorced his wife and left Warsaw to start a new life in Sandomierz is called in to investigate this strange and mysterious murder case. Alienated in provincial reality he struggles to find a killer, when he stumbles upon more victims. He conducts the investigation with the help of an aging policeman and a reluctant lady prosecutor. Gradually he discovers the subtle ins and outs of local society and history. In his efforts to solve the mystery he investigates a love triangle, an ancient Jewish ritual, and some Nazi symbols. It seems that all murders are connected to alleged, historical Jewish ritual killings and finally they prompt a wave of anti-Semitic hysteria in the town. In his investigation Szacki must wrestle with the painful tangle of Polish-Jewish relations and real findings of his work - that roots of some legends are fantasy, not a grain of truth.