Spurred by her husband's infidelity, writer/college lecturer Valerie Hawthorne has a romantic encounter with a compelling stranger in a rustic river-side hotel. They agree it will be a one-time thing, but it becomes an extended nightmare when she discovers the meeting was not accidental. Her stranger has both an ax to grind and an extravagant plan to make her pay for a crime she never even knew she committed. As Valerie's story unfolds, so does another-one more chilling than she could ever have imagined.