Haley Sadler is a 16-year-old music prodigy from Pennsylvania who is visiting New York City on a class trip. She attends a costume party and leaves in the company of Vincent Drago, a 22-year-old butcher with a criminal record. She is soon reported missing by a close friend. Drago remembers that Haley was in his apartment when he fell asleep, but does not remember when she left or how. He seems surprised when traces of her blood are found in his apartment and in his car. After a long and fruitless search, Haley is thought to be dead and Drago is placed on trial for her murder. The police have trouble convicting him without her corpse. During the trial, the police locate Haley hiding in a luxury house with her 40-year-old music teacher. They were lovers, they had decided to elope, and Haley herself had staged her disappearance and planted the evidence against Drago. She wanted to escape her parents, and she figured that somebody had to be blamed for her "death"".
—Dimos I