In 1965, Rodney Alcala attacks a teenage girl - only to brutalize and rape her again three years later; she feels guilty when she discovers he assaulted another girl soon after - but they are merely two of this man's countless victims.

A single mom, Barbara Maybe Abel, comes home to find a man holding her disabled sister hostage. He then tries to kidnap her young son, but she begs him to take her instead. She is at his mercy for days, and to survive, she must get Paul John Knowles to fall in love with her.