Nathalie Stein, Martina Ittenbach, an embittered and exhausted young attorney, is navigating a bitter divorce from her husband Tim Barrett Jones. She is determined that their two children, Jeremy and Elisabeth, never see their father again. Tim arrives to pick up the kids for what is believed to be one last time, but he does not return with them.
Nathalie’s quiet world fractures when her dog disappears and she finds a blood-soaked note bearing the Persian word Dard—a clue that inflicts pain. She reports it to the police, who can’t do much without solid evidence, and she decides to meet Tim and the children in Chinatown, hoping for answers. They never show up. Later that evening, Tim reappears, badly hurt and claiming the children have been abducted. Nathalie rushes to inform the police, but when Detective James Gates arrives, the scene has been cleaned and the body vanished, leaving no trace to confirm her story.
A second officer arrives, Detective Phil Warren, and Nathalie is suddenly overpowered. In a brutal flashback, Warren explains a narrow, violent version of events: Tim had allegedly stumbled into a drug deal tied to the Persian Mafioso Moha and killed several people before fleeing with cash and drugs. Warren insists the drugs are hidden in the house and, in a chilling revelation, claims to have killed Nathalie’s son Jeremy with a chainsaw and warns he will kill Elisabeth as well unless Nathalie reveals the stash. Torture follows—she endures physical mutilation as Warren pressures for information—until Nathalie breaks free and kills Warren with a broken bottle.
A mysterious man named Daniel Daryl Jackson then appears, claiming to have been shadowing Warren and offering help. His version of events is cleaner at first: Tim had merely happened upon the drug deal and came away with two cases, not knowing the depth of crime involved. Yet Daniel’s true intentions are murkier; he drugs Nathalie and disposes of Warren’s body. He tortures Nathalie with a hammer, and she fights back, managing to head-butt him and drive a hypodermic needle into his eye before killing him with a knife.
Severely wounded, Nathalie drags herself upward as the phone rings. It is Gates again, still alive and deeply corrupt, and he orders Elisabeth to be brought into peril, threatening to shoot Nathalie if she doesn’t reveal the location of the money and drugs. Remembering the dogs’ disappearance, Nathalie realizes the clue lies in a riddle from Tim’s old songs, and she and Elisabeth piece together the likely burial spot. As Nathalie reaches for a pencil, Gates shoots Elisabeth in the shoulder, but Nathalie grabs Daniel’s pistol and shoots Gates as he steps into the house.
Nathalie hobbles toward a cornfield where Tim and their son are waiting. The full truth emerges: Gates had used Tim as an informer and planned to hand Moha over to him, but Tim sabotaged the scheme by poisoning the coffee at the diner to kill the mafiosi and seize the deal. Tim’s act foils Gates’ plan, yet Elisabeth’s final act of desperation saves them all—she shoots Tim from behind, ending his threat. In the aftermath, Nathalie and the children begin a new life, free from the web of lies, corruption, and violence that pursued them throughout the ordeal.
