On the surface, Ray Ryan has it all. He's a successful advertising executive with a new promotion. He has a nice home and a beautiful fiance. But underneath it all is a dark secret he's finding harder to hide. Ray's nightmares are giving way to visions of his abusive father, unlocking a suppressed violence he's unable to control. When ray brutally assaults a man in a parking lot, it leads to an investigation by an aging detective with a connected past.

After some personal trauma, Wilson Walmsley is invited to work as a substitute teacher in a suburban public high school. He finds lack of authority and interest in the school direction and teacher body; uncontrolled and abusive students in an environment of disrespect and lack of discipline. He becomes close to the arts teacher Louise and to the smart and abused student Joey. When he saves Louise from a sexual assault of the student Davey, Louise and him are sued by Davey's family lawyer; then Davey's girlfriend beats Louise. The upset Walmsley lures, drugs and kidnaps Joey and six troublemakers of his class and brings them to his isolate real estate in Alpine, Texas. When the seven students wake up, they are naked and caged in cages with electric fences. When Walmsley arrives, he advises that his class will begin, and any disrespect or lack of discipline will be duly punished, and shots Joey to make clear his intentions. And the class begins.

Mike, with his secure job, steady relationship with girlfriend, Sarah, and the feeling that his life could be more, spins into an out-of-control relationship with Amy, who his best-friend, Eddie is seeing. With his life with Sarah in ruins and Eddie's immanent discovery of betrayal, his life is definitely more.