Cosmo "Skull" Dugger suffers from anhedonia, a psychologial condition that robs him of the ability to experience joy. He builds an electronic device that allows him to steal the joy--and life--of a person he points it at during their moment of greatest pleasure. The process leaves a skull imprinted on the forehead of the victim. After three victims are killed, Dr. Faye Sommers calls in Batman to examine the last one, and he winds up battling some of Dugger's thugs at the hospital, who are trying to steal the victim's body. Batman picks out "Skull" Dugger's face on videotapes of the events where each of the victims (a baseball player, an actor, and a lottery winner) were killed.