After twelve years of being away, Lisa Monroe returns to her usually quiet hometown of Milford to work as a police detective. She was recruited by her childhood friend, now Lieutenant Joe O'Conner. The first case on which she works as lead investigator is the death of Louise Dexter, her grandmother. Although the autopsy points to the death being accidental, Lisa finds evidence that implicates Jake Mitchell as the murderer. Jake Mitchell raped and killed Lisa's best friend Jenny Rand fifteen years earlier. Jake has been paroled and has returned to Milford to live. At his trial, he vowed revenge on the four people who testified against him, namely Louise, Sergeant Stuart Kling (Lisa's colleague who does not respect her investigative abilities), a security guard named Vinnie DiCampo, and Lisa herself. To some extent, all four feel guilty, but especially Lisa, about not preventing Jenny's death, each who had an opportunity that day to intervene in the interaction between Jake and Jenny.