Faye Martens, Frankie Porter, and Professor Nathan Harland are kidnapped during a normal day at the university and taken to a dark and isolated basement in an abandoned villa outside of Baltimore.
Their abductor, an unknown psychopath, seems to know every detail of their lives and does not limit himself to torturing them physically.
His psychological manipulations push them beyond their limits in a sadistic game where the hope of escape seems to vanish at every step.
His unpredictable behaviour and the pleasure he takes from their suffering increase the growing terror of the prisoners.
Meanwhile, Louis, Faye's older brother and young policeman, is on a desperate quest to find them. Every track he finds raises more questions than answers, and the closer he gets to the truth, the more he realizes that time runs inexorably.
His quest leads him to follow elusive clues, but each new lead seems to drive him away from the solution. In a race against time, Louis is determined not to stop until he has found his sister and the others, but the truth he will discover may be even more shocking than imagined.