When a body is found trussed up in the River Odra in western Poland, the police are baffled. The man has been starved and tortured, before being thrown alive into the river. It has all the hallmarks of a punishment beating. The murder investigation stalls until police discover an online murder story written by a Krystian Bala that bears similarities to the death of the man in the river. Bala has even published a book, an explicit cocktail of murder and pornography. Bala becomes prime suspect, and police reveal a catalogue of errors by Bala that result in his arrest and conviction. To this day Bala protests his innocence.