It was 1987 when Annie went out to play with a neighbor. Not long after the neighbor called her house to ask when Annie was coming over. Annie's mother immediately and in a panic went out and looked for Annie. She was never found. Now more than fifteen years later two persons bring the case to the forefront. The cold case is brought up to Alex by Johnnie, her faithful researcher and confidant. The case caught his eye and he had done some researching that seemed to lead to a potential solution. Alex thanked him for his research but put off doing anything with it because she had just closed a very challenging case. Then a strange thing happened that brought it back up to the top of the pile. An older woman came to the station and with some information about a girl that went missing several years before. Alex's boss asked her to listen to the story that the woman wanted to share. He was not sure that it was a matter for the city police. Alex Evercrest, the only black female detective on the Cincinnati, police force listens to the story being told by the woman named Martha Melville, a Cincinnati Public Library librarian. Almost immediately she remembers the cold case that Johnnie had put on her desk. The story that Martha shares is similar to the details in the report prepared by Johnnie. It intrigues Alex and makes her wonder if Martha is sharing what happened to Annie. Alex follows one dead end path after another in her quest to find out what happened to Annie. When her car is bombed, she knows that she must be on the right path. She follows her clues to a secluded mountain cabin. What she discovers shocks her to her core. After more than a decade as a chained prisoner, Annie returns to society. She is now a mother of two girls. She is embraced by her family and begins her readjustment into normal society. But her problems are not over and now Alex becomes the focus for revenge.