THEN: The year is 1963. In an unsuspecting farmhouse in rural Ontario, a teenage Sylvia St. James has been abducted. Locked in the basement, Sylvia gets to know her kidnapper. They are kind, bringing her food and conversation; but they also have a temper. They are naive, yet somehow knowledgeable, and Sylvia can't help but think that she is not the first girl to wear these chains. Who is this captor, and what do they want?

NOW: Seven years after the farmhouse, a now 23 year-old Sylvia has been fired from her job at the newspaper. With the help of her coworker, Sylvia sets out to write her own book about the humanity and psychology of convicted criminals - a topic particularly close to her heart.

But traveling across the country to interview murderers opens old wounds that never quite healed. Sylvia must come to terms with her past, but the truth is not pretty. What really happened in that basement, all those years ago? And why is there no public record of Sylvia St. James ever escaping?