A child goes missing during a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade and the mother, Peg McGregor, becomes obsessed with finding her daughter and avenging the crime. The police call on the top detectives, Lester Hopper and Pierre Martens, to untangle the clues and rescue the kidnapped child. Meanwhile, a vigilante, dubbed the "Crusader" has become a local hero by delivering an extreme brand of justice. The detectives are in a race against time to solve both high-profile crimes. Pierre, driven by a thirst for glory, is pursuing his own devious path to solving the ever-increasing Crusader killings....