A series of violent deaths and the disappearance of a young woman bring FBI agents Hallaway (Bill Pullman) and Anderson (Julia Ormond) to a town in rural Nebraska. They meet the three survivors of a mysterious bloodbath; the young Stephanie (Ryan Simpkins), the cocaine-addicted Bobbi (Pell James), and the foul-mouthed police officer Bennett (Kent Harper). Hallaway watches the trio's respective interviews with Captain Billings (Michael Ironside) and officers Wright (Charlie Newmark) and Degrasso (Gill Gayle), where they tell the story of what brought them there: