When her dutiful teenage sister disappears, a guilt-ridden nurse returns to her small mountain town to discover why only to become ensnared in a life-or-death fight against an unexpected foe desperate to silence her before she can expose their crimes.

SOMETIMES THE ONES WITH THE LEAST HAVE THE MOST TO LOSE

SYNOPSIS:

Act I (Setup):

Lori Carter returns to her rural hometown from nearby Asheville after learning from her estranged mother her sister hadn’t come home after closing the family convenience store the night before. The teenager isn’t returning calls, which is unlike her. The last person to have seen Tanya was the evening shift cashier. When asked if she’d noticed anything out of the ordinary when leaving, the older woman mentions a stranger with a Marines tattoo had just left as Tanya arrived. A man is shown entering the store shortly after it has closed and a violent confrontation occurs. There’s no record of this though, as the surveillance videotape is gone. Meanwhile Shane, the PTSD-stricken veteran who had a brush with the missing girl shortly before her disappearance, volunteers to help find her.

Act II (Confrontation):

On horseback, Lori almost discovers where her sister is held, but an ATV-riding gunman attacks and she barely escapes. She and Shane begin suspecting local law enforcement is involved, but abandon this theory when the Sheriff and his top deputy are present during subsequent attacks. Lori, scared and frustrated, gives up hope, but Shane’s suspicions deepen when he’s attacked at his camper.

Shane becomes a person of interest, but Lori realizes popular Deputy Jackson knows more than he claims. Attacks resume after Shane shares an accidental voicemail he gets of the Sheriff telling his wife their son-in-law Chip took Tanya. The truth then seems revealed when the junior lawman finds his boss and the missing girl dead of an apparent murder/suicide.

Devastated but unconvinced, the investigating couple’s ongoing suspicions strengthen both their resolve and relationship, however evidence of the ex-Marine having staged the crime then surfaces at his home.

Act III (Resolution):

On the run, Shane questions Lori’s dementia-suffering father who speaks of a gambling ring, hidden surveillance cameras, and a secret poker game run by the sheriff. The fugitive then breaks into the county police offices where he discovers footage of Deputy Jackson kidnapping Tanya. Before Shane proves his innocence, an unravelled Jackson arrests him following a dramatic chase through a town square vigil.

Lori exposes the truth, prompting the dead sheriff’s daughter to erupt in a diatribe about how she knew her moronic husband would screw up her perfect plan. This public humiliation causes Chip to snap, and he attempts to choke Crystal while accusing her of ruining everything. They are arrested.

In the epilogue Shane, Lori, and her parents talk about understanding, forgiveness and playing the hand you’re dealt.