The story is based upon a gruesome true crime that occurred in Rhode Island in 1975 when five-year-old freckled face Justin Doherty (all names and places have been changed) was kidnapped and murdered. After a week long search by police and volunteers, Justin's mother Jane and Detective Rick Thurston begin a gut-wrenching, futile crusade to find Justin.

Finally in 1982, Norman Stedman, a twenty-three-year old loner and neighbor, is apprehended when he tires to strangle the local paperboy and while questioned confesses to killing Justin.

During a search of Norman's house, the police find Justin's skull and bones and a jounal describing in grim detail what he did to the dead boy's body. In a plea bargain, the trial judge seals the journal creating rumors to this day about what is in the document.

A retired local principal seeks answers to unanswered questions about the crime. What caused the killer, a capable student and considered harmless, go over the edge and kill an innocent child? Exactly, what was written in the sealed journal? And finally, what long range effect has this brutal crime had on its victims.

Norman Stedman is expected to be released from prison in August, 2011. The public is enraged. Justin's father threatens to seek revenge and will kill Norman if he is released.