One summer night in 1985, twelve-year-old Julia Pemberton disappears without a trace from a friend's backyard birthday party. Everyone in the sleepy town of Chatham, North Carolina, believes she was taken while hiding in the woods during a game of kick the can-but the truth is much closer to home.

In the days following Julia's disappearance, the small town's residents grapple with the new circumstances, so disparate from the slow-paced Southern tranquility they'd grown accustomed to. Dell Jenkins, Julia's lifelong best friend, has to start sixth grade without her, and as the months go by, she feels like everyone is moving on with their lives too easily. The only person that seems to feel Julia's absence as keenly is Tommy, Julia's father. But after weeks of searching, Tommy begins to lose faith that his daughter will ever come home alive, shutting himself up-and the rest of the world out-in his woodshop. Meanwhile, Betsy Glass, the hostess of the party, worries the whole town feels she is responsible for Julia's disappearance. But just as her guilt begins to dissipate, she uncovers evidence of her husband's infidelity, unknowingly setting all three characters on a path to discovering the truth.