1979: four teenage boys from an elite private school sexually assault a classmate – and film the attack. Not long after, the tape goes missing and the suspected thief, a fellow classmate, is murdered. In the investigation that follows, one boy turns in evidence for the state and two of his peers are convicted. 1989: one of the perpetrators, Fritz McCabe, has been released from prison. Unrepentant, and angry, he is a virtual prisoner of his parents – until a copy of the missing tape arrives with a ransom demand. That's when the McCabes call Kinsey Millhone for help.