Peter Sanderson (Christopher Lambert) is an expert chess champion successfully disposing of his opponents by day and dating beautiful women at night. Then one of these women is killed in the strangest of manners. The police suspect Sanderson and bring in a psychoanalyst (Diane Lane) to help. Soon Sanderson is contacted by someone who appears to be the killer and leaves clues only he could decipher. Further killings become a chess game itself, and Sanderson realizes that he has to beat the murderer to stop the killings and clear his own name.