A lanky, seemingly amiable man, hereon referred to as The Puppet, pays a visit to Madame Zelma at a palm reader shop. When Madame Zelma seems more interested in taking The Puppet's money than predicting his future, The Puppet strangles her.
     Meanwhile, Mulder and Scully are asked to assist in a murder investigation wherein several "professional prognosticators" were gruesomely murdered-and their entrails evidentally arranged in an attempt to divine the future. Later, a man named Clyde Bruckman, an insurance salesman, discovers Madame Zelma's body in a dumpster outside his apartment. As the agents interview Bruckman, it becomes apparent he possesses detailed knowledge about the killings, leading Mulder to believe Bruckman is a true psychic. Bruckman suspects that the killer may also possess psychic powers. He predicts another victim will surface the following day floating in a lake.
     When Bruckman's vision proves correct, Mulder asks him for assistance in finding the killer. Bruckman fears that interfering with fate might adversely alter the future. Meanwhile, Scully discovers that all of the victims had in their possession a keychain from an investment firm that provides market strategies based on astrological forecasts. Bruckman accurately predicts that the firm's owner was murdered and buried in a forest.
     Later, Bruckman describes how Mulder, at some point in the future, will step in a pie-and then meet his fate at the hands of the murderer. When a tarot card reader is murdered, Mulder and Scully assign Agent Havez to guard Bruckman at a hotel, fearing the killer may sense his whereabouts. As Scully inspects clues at the murder scene, she realizes the murderer is the bellhop (The Puppet) at the hotel. When The Puppet arrives at Bruckman's hotel room to serve him his meal, both men sense each other's psychic vibes. The Puppet kills Havez, then runs from the room. Mulder and Scully arrive at the hotel and spot the bellhop racing away from the scene. Mulder follows The Puppet into the hotel's kitchen, where he steps in a pie. Recognizing the prophetic sign, Mulder spins around, and is able to deflect his attacker's blow momentarily. But as The Puppet poises to strike Mulder with a knife, Scully exits from the elevator and fires her gun, killing The Puppet.
     Later, the agents find Bruckman's body at his apartment. The agents realize he took his own life.