In April 1982, Bernie Sheppard, of Olympia Fields, Ill., learns that his 23-year old daughter, Deborah, has been found dead in her apartment in Carbondale, Ill. Deborah, a senior in college who is days away from graduating, is suspected of a drug overdose. Her father Bernie doesn't buy it, insisting that his daughter didn't do drugs. Bernie flies his daughter's body to a famed forensic pathologist in Chicago, for a second autopsy. The results devastate Bernie and his wife Hazel: Deborah had been sexually assaulted and then strangled to death. As the police begin tracking down possible suspects, her father starts his own investigation. Bernie travels to Carbondale numerous times, questioning Deborah's friends and classmates, and following every lead that comes up, but he finds nothing that gives him the answer he so desperately seeks. The police pursue their own investigation, but soon enough, the case reaches a dead end. Decades pass and Bernie's hunt for the killer is never far from his mind. Will his daughter's murder ever be solved? Will the killer be brought to justice?