Late one night, Robert Danziger receives an unexpected call from a childhood friend, Duval Morgan. Duval has spent more than twenty years in an Illinois state penitentiary for the horrific rape and assault of a young nurse. Now he is finally out.

Robert has recently returned to his native city of Chicago to make a fresh start - but Duval is a voice from the past, and from a childhood Robert would rather forget. Robert reluctantly agrees to meet him, and is astonished to find he is proclaiming his innocence. But as Duval gradually starts to spend more time with the Danziger family, befriending Robert's wife Anna and young daughter Sophie, Robert's trust is pushed to the limit and he finds himself wondering what his old friend really wants.

When Anna, a lawyer, takes up Duval's cause, Robert is reluctant to encourage her, for reasons he's not entirely sure of himself. Then just as Anna's investigations into the rape case start to make progress, Duval disappears.