The disappearance of an attractive young woman plunges a small Texas town into a frenzy of paranoia and recrimination. With each day Ester remains missing, the accusations and rumors grow wilder and more outrageous. Assistant DA Diane Marshall and her husband, Deputy Max Konstantin, investigate the usual leads, including the unorthodox tenets of Ester's conservative Christian sect and her father’s peculiar business dealings. Mounting forensic evidence and a chilling eyewitness account suggest that Ester is the victim of abduction and satanic ritual murder. When the witness names the deputy sheriff as the murderer, the townspeople reach the brink of hysteria. The labyrinthine plot of this singular crime drama probes themes of faith and prayer, forensic investigation, moral panic, mass delusion, and false memory.