A teenage girl disappears and later turns up drowned, with a log across her back. Three years later, a former friend comes forward with some answers.

From 1979 to 1981, 29 African-American males, mostly children, were either missing or found murdered in metro Atlanta. The cases plagued the city until 1982, when Wayne Wiiliams was convicted of the murders of two adult men. Authorities then considered the other cases closed. Some of the parents of the slain children were critical of the way the cases were handled and believed there was some sort of cover up. Nearly four years after the conviction of Williams, "Spin" magazine editor Ron Larson and reporter Pat Laughlin come to Atlanta in search of the truth.