California, 1984. Three children, running in the woods behind their school, stumble upon a partially buried female body, eyes and mouth glued shut. Their teacher, Anne Navarre, is shocked by this discovery and heartbroken as she witnesses the end of their innocence. What she doesn't yet realize is that this will mark the end of innocence for an entire community, as the ties that bind families and friends are tested by secrets uncovered in the wake of a serial killer's escalating activity.

Detective Tony Mendez is charged with interpreting the clues left behind. He's using a new profiling technique to develop a theory -- a strategy that pushes him ever deeper into the lives of the three children, and closer to the young teacher whose interest in recent events becomes as intense as his own. Mendez and Navarre wonder if those who suffer most are the victims -- or the family and friends of the killer, unaware that someone very close to them is a brutal, calculating psychopath.