Over the course of two years, Keith Jesperson (David Arquette), a long-haul truck driver, kills at least eight women, following his failed marriage and an injury which prevented him from joining the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He meets his first victim in a Portland, Oregon bar and kills her after an argument in his rented home. When Delores Parnicke falsely confesses to committing the murder with her boyfriend, Jesperson sends disturbing letters to the press and even writes confessions on the wall of a highway rest stop and at the body dumps. He signs his notes with a smiley face, earning himself the nickname, "Happy Face Killer", as he resumes his killing spree.