Martha Alston, Ellen DeGeneres, a San Diego–based associate producer on a local TV talk show, finds her orderly life upended when she is framed in a murder on her wedding day. In a tense Mexican prison, she faces investigators who insist she killed her fiancé, and she must tell her side of the story to clear her name. The present frame and the past weave together as she recounts a string of choices that led to that fatal moment.
Months earlier, Martha attends her younger sister’s wedding, and the looming pressure from her parents to settle down is all around her. At work, she juggles interviews and studio deadlines while her personal life feels stuck. She resists a dating proposal from a younger coworker, Walter, wary of rushing into romance. After a dull Valentine’s Day, she retreats home and finds herself drawn to the possibility of something more exciting. A night out at a bar sets the stage for a chance encounter with a man who seems to understand her in a way few others do.
That man is Whitman Crawford, Robert Goulet, a polished, confident figure who sweeps Martha off her feet. They connect instantly, share flirtatious chemistry, and soon return to his home, where Whitman, charming and attentive, reads her one of his poems and promises a future built on affection and shared dreams. He appears perfectly safe, a poet with money and a world of possibilities. Martha introduces him to her family, who are swept up by his charisma, though his eccentric mother, Mrs. Crawford, Joan Plowright, casts a more curious, unsettling light on the man she’s become involved with.
As Martha spends more time with Whitman, cracks begin to show in his polished exterior. He exhibits small, alarming lapses from decorum that hint at something darker—a taste for theatrics, manipulative subtleties, and a brittle impatience with anyone who challenges him. He demonstrates a volatile flip from tenderness to threat, casually shoplifting a six-pack to prove a point and crushing cans on his forehead in a display that unsettles her. It becomes clear that Whitman is not merely unconventional; he is a crafty, devious, narcissistic sociopath who hides behind a likable persona. The more Martha tries to see him clearly, the more she realizes how deeply others have fallen under his spell.
Whitman’s hold extends to Martha’s social circle and family. Inga Gunther, Joan Cusack, Whitman’s ex-girlfriend, appears as part of a web of harassment around Martha, aided by her accomplice, Bob, Brad William Henke. When Martha ends the relationship, Whitman refuses to accept the break and escalates his manipulation, convincing some friends and even members of Martha’s family that the couple is engaged. He uses deceit, misdirection, and cash to leverage situations in his favor, including one shockingly cruel move that costs Martha her job. The danger becomes personal as he physically harms her, drugs her, and abducts her, dragging her toward a wedding that seems more like a trap than a union.
The journey to Mexico marks a literal and symbolic turning point. Whitman has orchestrated a plan to secure Martha’s future by force, and he enlists two young Mexican children to help transport her, steering them all toward a wedding that will seal her fate. Martha’s sole beacon of hope in this perilous moment is Walter, her coworker who remains resistant to Whitman’s manipulations. She manages to call Walter from a distance and explain the danger, though Whitman intercepts the call and cuts the line.
In a dramatic confrontation at the church, the wedding proceeds under a shadow of fear. Inga and Bob show up, intent on finishing what they started, while Whitman tries to maintain control. Walter arrives too late to prevent disaster, trips, and drops his gun, leaving Martha to improvise a plan to escape. In a moment of dangerous urgency, Martha seizes an opportunity and fires at Whitman as he lunges toward her. The fallout is swift: she is arrested and faced with the weight of her alleged crime.
Walter and Bob work behind the scenes to rescue Martha from a jail cell, revealing that Inga’s initial attempt to kill Martha had gone awry and that Whitman survived the attack. The revelation reframes the entire ordeal, shifting the focus from Martha’s alleged crime to the deception that surrounded her relationship. They learn the full truth, and the man who posed as a loving partner is shown to be untrustworthy and dangerous.
The closing chapters unfold with a return to the wider world, where Martha and Walter flee toward an uncertain but hopeful future. They ride west toward the setting sun, choosing to start anew under assumed names in the United States, while Inga and Bob drift into a different kind of life, later opening a pet store in Albuquerque. Whitman, meanwhile, continues his search for love, unrepentant and restless, a reminder that the danger of charm can outlast a single relationship.
In the end, the film leaves viewers with a quiet sense of resolution: Martha survives a harrowing ordeal, asserts her narrative against the noise of others’ doubts, and realigns her life with a cautious optimism about the future. The story remains a study of appearances versus reality, the ways in which affection can be weaponized, and the fragile line between danger and safety in the pursuit of connection.
