A troubled French Detective Jean-Luc Fornier is investigating series of bizarre deaths in Paris' Chinatown district, including an America national, found disemboweled. The American is a the subject of a sting operation, which gets FBI agent Stephanie Low, a bilingual English-Mandarin specialist in serial killer behavior, involved in the investigation. Fornier, who speaks fluent English is assigned to be her liaison.
The crime scenes imply the involvement of supernatural forces. In one case a businessman froze to death in his office in the middle of a heatwave; in another the mistress of a prominent official called the fire department and was later found burned to death - with no sign of a fire ever occurring in her apartment. Fornier is skeptical but Low, who is more receptive to supernatural possibilities, suggests they investigate a local cult. After interviewing multiple persons, they find that the killings follows a form of Taoist belief that one must fulfill five types of suffering required to become a Xian, an immortal being. According to legend, having double pupils allows a person to see the sins of another.
