A policeman neglects his young, attractive wife because of his professional duties. Soon, he has to face the fact that she deceives him. It seriously complicates the case he is working on: attractive young women are brutally killed by means of a pencil rammed into their noses until the brain is pierced.

The Inquisition is in full swing in 16th century Flanders. Wanted for his dissident writings, the alchemist doctor Zeno has been wandering Europe under an assumed name for twenty years. But he remains a non-conformist. He returns to his native Bruges, where he thinks he has been forgotten. In this silent labyrinth where the faces of the past resurface, he rediscovers his identity and thus signs his death warrant.