Ellen Barkin stars as Catherine Palmer, a tough-talking, hard-drinking homicide detec­tive tracking a serial killer through the dark streets of an unnamed city. The bodies are always in the same grotesque condition: scrubbed down, face made up, wrists and ankles bruised from restraints, eyelids cut off. While searching a crime scene, Barkin discov­ers a briefcase full of lurid S&M photographs and bondage sex toys and follows the killer into a hallucinatory sexual underworld. Peta Wilson (TV's La Femme Nikita) plays Vickie Kittrie, the libidinous best friend and former lover of one of the victims, who introduces the detective to a secret society of lipstick lesbians composed of bored socialites and prominent businesswomen.

A steamy sexual game of cat-and-mouse ensues, with Wilson hungrily attempting to seduce the hard­ boiled Barkin. Julian Sands pops up as a twist­ed psychiatrist, of the Dressed to Kill transves­tite variety, who is treating a young victim of childhood sexual abuse. Combining a woozy, softcore style with a retro-'80s chic view of lesbian sexuality, Mercy is a torrid noir film sure to offend the politically correct.