The recounting of a terrible crime that wracked a family and galvanized police in South Carolina in the 1980's. Southern beauty pageant winner Dawn Smith is targeted by a sadistic stalker whose obsession with her leads him to kidnap her younger sister.

Carrie Buck is a young intellectually disabled woman who is persuaded to fight against the courts for custody of her newborn daughter after it's taken from her since Carrie has been declared mentally incompetent to raise her baby by herself.