The detectives investigate the disappearance of Nina Raedo, and the young girl's mother details her descent in intense body modifications. Surprisingly, a leg, belonging to Nina, is fished out of the river. Warner's report suggests the girl was alive when the leg was surgically removed from her body, but the rest of her body is later discovered. The detectives enter the underground world of body modification, which leads them to Jess Hardwick who performed a cosmetic ear surgery on Nina. Jess' connection to a dentist, Dr. Gene Brightman, gave her access to the surgical equipment she needed, and Gene's brother, Hall Brightman, was Nina's psychiatrist. Their mother lost her leg in car accident when Hal was 13, leading him to sexualize her amputated body. When he started treating Jess, his sexual attraction to amputations grew, and he began paying women (5 in total) for the privilege of amputating their legs. Nina, his first unwillingly participant, had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and died.