Julia Carver, a twenty-four-year-old model and aspiring actress, has always had a difficult relationship with her mother, Cindy. After Cindy's divorce from Tom Carver when Julia was fourteen, Julia chose to live with her father, a successful entertainment lawyer, and only returned home a year ago when he remarried. Julia's return is a huge adjustment for Cindy, her younger daughter, Heather, and Heather's boyfriend, Duncan, who lives with them. As a child, Julia was willful and self-absorbed. As an adult, she is even worse. So, when her daughter disappears during the Toronto International Film Festival, Cindy assumes that Julia is just being Julia. But after a day and night passes without word, Cindy begins to suspect that something terrible has happened to her daughter, and begins a frantic search. As the days pass, secrets are revealed, lives are forever altered, and Cindy is forced to acknowledge the disturbing truth about the young woman she realizes she never knew.