時間是1987年的11月，菜鳥警探厄瑪里瑞菈和搭檔當時正在調查一起六歲女童因頭部受傷而住院的案子。感覺到事情不對勁的他們前往拜訪女童父母喬史坦柏和海達努斯鮑姆在西村的昂貴公寓。她在那天所見到的景象和隨之而來的媒體風暴揭露出史上最嚴重的虐童事件。將近20年後，成為老鳥的厄瑪被派去調查一名廣受喜愛的女演員及作家亞瑞安雪莉的死因。雖然檢驗結果顯示這是自殺，但厄瑪和雪莉的鰥夫仍有疑慮。經過仔細的調查後，厄瑪和她的搭檔找到了新的線索，也鎖定了嫌犯。厄瑪現在得和兇嫌面對面，想辦法取得能將他繩之以法的自白。
In November, 1987, Irma Rivera is still a rookie detective when she and her partner investigate a case of a six-year old girl hospitalized with a head injury. Sensing something fishy, they visit the apartment of the child's parents, Joel Steinberg and Hedda Nussbaum, in New York City's affluent West Village. Nothing could have prepared Irma for what she witnesses that day, or for the media frenzy that quickly develops as she investigates the city's biggest child abuse case ever. Nearly 20 years later, Irma is now a veteran detective when she is called in to join the investigation of the death of beloved actress and writer, Adrienne Shelly. Though the medical examiner has termed the death a suicide, detectives, and Adrienne's widower, have doubts. Through careful investigation, Irma and her crew identify a intriguing clue, then a suspect. Now it's Irma's job to sit-down face to face with the perp, and get the confession detectives need to put a killer behind bars.
