When Barbara Harris finds a grisly story written by her husband Mitchell titled "The Story of Anna,' she believes he's writing a novel. Although his main character, which he refers to as John Doe, did not kill the girl Anna, his mindset description leads Barbara to believe that's where the story was leading, and had the girl's father not interrupted him, he would have.

The story both frightens and intrigues her. Her next decision would prove to be the second biggest mistake of her life when she offers to edit his pages as he writes them. The biggest mistake was marrying Mitchell to begin with.

Under her husband's watchful eye Barbara enters the ungodly, violent world of John Doe.

For months Mitchell turns out story after story, each becoming bloodier, and more savage, leaving Barbara feeling uncomfortable, even sickened at times.

When his pseudo novel begins to match the news broadcasts Barbara starts to question her own sanity as she continues to edit the pages. Was Mitchell stealing the stories from real life killings that had nothing to do with him, or was he committing the brutal acts of murder himself? Had he been killing women since he was a boy? Was it him who was plagued by bad dreams of blood and death for as long as he could remember? Was Mitchell actually John Doe in the flesh?