Eight horribly mutilated bodies are found chained together in Shanghai's Huangpu River. Four of the corpses, the autopsies reveal, turn out to be recently executed criminals; two others are European males; one appears to be an overseas Chinese with tattoos that suggest a gang connection; and one is an Asian female several months pregnant.
In other words, we have a serious incident that screams involvement of an organized, well-funded criminal group. Shanghai's chief forensic pathologist is so intimidated that he refuses to touch it.
When senior investigator Sun Piao of the Public Security Bureau lands the case, he's not only discouraged from energetically pursuing the perpetrators; those who help him wind up getting murdered. Everyone close to him, including his klutzy, comically foul-mouthed subordinate Yaobang, is endangered. He's eventually set up to take a fall and threatened with arrest.
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