Eden

Jae, an 18-year-old Korean-American, goes out with a friend and meets a firefighter who offers a ride. She soon discovers his badge is fake and tries to escape, but she is captured, bound, tape-gagged, and placed in the trunk of another car. The abduction marks the start of her brutal trafficking ordeal.

Drugged and transported to an isolated warehouse, Jae has her braces removed and personal belongings taken, and a tracking anklet put on. She meets Bob, a corrupt law enforcement official who leads the sex trafficking operation and renames her Eden. She is given two days to adapt to her new life.

Eden endures daily pregnancy tests and is forced to perform in porn and prostitution. During her first prostitution job she fights back and attempts to escape, but is recaptured and kept overnight, hands cuffed in a tub filled with ice. This marks the start of the brutal routine she will endure.

Tensions rise within the trafficking ring as Vaughn, the volatile overseer, is confronted by Bob; the confrontation ends with Vaughn being slapped. The moment shows the brutality and control exercised over Eden and the other captives. Their roles and loyalties begin to shift in the background.

One year into the operation, Eden has adapted and befriended Priscilla, who is shocked to learn Eden is nearly nineteen. Priscilla warns that something unknown happens to girls who become 'too old,' foreshadowing danger. Priscilla is then taken away, deepening Eden's fear and isolation.

Svetlana, Vaughn's trustee, acquires the class ring Eden received from her father. To keep the ring away, Eden is forced to swallow it as part of the coercive control. She then volunteers to help Vaughn with the operation’s accounting and begins replacing Svetlana, moving away from the sex-work side of the business.

After a night at a college fraternity party, Eden assists Vaughn with accounting for the frat, and helps recapture two other girls who attempt to escape. Her role expands as she begins handling day-to-day operations and phones, signaling a shift in her status within the ring.

Bob gives a seminar on drug trafficking, attracting police interest as detectives question him about recent killings and a missing deputy. Eden and Vaughn later dump bodies, including Svetlana, in a lake, and Vaughn betrays Bob by stabbing him to death on a boat.

While answering phones, Eden recognizes a police sting when a customer asks how much something will cost, yet she says nothing and continues her duties. This shows her growing awareness of law enforcement activity around the operation. The sting plan proceeds without her tipping off the others.

Eden and Vaughn take a girl to Mario's house, where Eden immediately recognizes the man as the transporter who brought her to the warehouse. She finds a room full of baby beds and learns Priscilla is heavily pregnant, doomed to have her baby sold. Eden is forced to witness the grim purpose of the operation.

Vaughn tries to force Eden to kill another girl in the desert to prove her loyalty, but she resists and is stopped at the last moment. The stakes rise as Eden realizes escape may be possible, setting up her final act.

When the opportunity to escape arises, Eden pours chemicals on Vaughn’s meth pipe, killing him in the bathroom. She then cuts the tracking bracelet from her ankle and escapes with money and drugs, seizing control of her fate.

Eden travels to Mario’s house, where she kills Mario after he refuses to release Priscilla. She finds Priscilla and learns her baby was sold; the two escape together. At a payphone, Eden finally hears her mother’s voice for the first time in a year.