While investigating a strange case, Scully finds herself strangely drawn towards Mulder's next door neighbour - who could also be the killer.

Scully is on her way to discuss a murder case with Mulder in his apartment when she meets a strange man in a lift. The man is Phillip Padgett - Mulder's next door neighbour. He is a writer who lives in his head. Scully feels uncomfortable with this man and wants to get away from him quickly, possibly because he keeps staring at her! Mulder and Scully discuss their case which involves a woman who has had her heart removed without any incisions or forensic evidence left at the scene. This is just the kind of case that Mulder loves and predictably, he expresses his wild theory that the heart was removed by something called "psychic surgery" and again, predictably, Scully is sceptical. Unbeknownst to them, Padgett is listening to their every word.

When Mulder finds out that a similar murder has occurred on Lover's Lane, he calls Scully to tell her that he is at a dead end, and that he seems powerless to stop any further murders. While on the phone, Scully notices that an envelope has been slipped under Mulder's office door. Surely Mr. X hasn't come back! No, actually it's some sort of a pendant called a "milagro" - a lucky charm which bears the image of a burning heart. While Mulder is sceptical that this has something to do with the killer, Scully isn't so sure and sets out to do some research.

Scully visits a nearby church to look at a painting called "The Divine Heart". It shows the image of Christ holding a burning heart in his hands. Here, she meets Padgett for the second time but this time he actually talks. He begins to tell her that he is attracted to her, and practically tells her her whole life story. He also confesses to having sent the milagro. Scully is uncomfortable with what he is saying and quickly leaves, but finds that she cannot forget this man and something compels her to go and visit Padgett in his apartment. This is where he also reveals that he has known her for a long, long time and even got this apartment so he could be near her. What a strange guy! Just as Padgett and Scully look as though they might be starting to get intimate, Mulder barges in waving his gun around (to spoil the show for every male watcher in the world!) and arrests Padgett. Oh well. It seems that Padgett is the killer and has been targeting his victims using ads in the paper. He has also been writing about each victim in detail in his apparent "novel". So that was what all the typing was for!

However, this is The X-Files and things aren't that straightforward. Another similar murder is committed while Padgett is locked up in prison which leads Mulder to believe that he is psychically communicating with his accomplish, a guy named Dr. Ken Naciamento who seems to have a strange fetish for hoods. He is a well-known Brazilian psychic surgeon and Mulder believes that Padgett directed him to commit his murders. Mulder releases Padgett so that he can spy on him and try to catch him at work. Come on Mulder, its not like you weren't doing that before!

Back in his apartment, Padgett is paid a visit by Ken Naciamento of all people. Mulder and Scully's surveillance isn't picking this up though, it seems it's all in Padgett's head. Naciamento convinces Padgett that Scully must be killed to make the "perfect ending". He hurriedly finishes his novel and then rushes down to the basement incinerator (oh, so there's an incinerator now is there) to burn all his hard work. Mulder pulls a gun on him, thinking that he is burning evidence of his crimes, but instead he is trying to stop Scully from being killed. Meanwhile, in Mulder's apartment, Scully is attacked by Naciamento and is about to have her heart ripped out when Padgett throws his pages into the incinerator ending the story. Mulder rushes to Scully's aid who is covered in blood. She throws her arm around Mulder and weeps, realizing how close she came to death (isn't she supposed to be immortal now?). Down in the basement, Padgett lies dead on the floor with his own heart in his hand. Now that will give the cleaner a shock.