In leafy, affluent north shore Winnetka, vicious lawyer Laura Sumner and her mousey assistant-professor husband Lewis are in the fight of their lives -- for custody of their baby daughter Marie -- and neither will move out of the house. Meanwhile, in a suburban courthouse and a shag-carpeted split-level in Skokie, Meredith Bennett, a middle-aged prosecutor, attempts to balance career and motherhood after her doctor husband leaves her for a much younger woman. When the Sumner's baby vanishes from her crib in the depths of night, Meredith must hunt for her kidnapper -- and ultimately, for a murderer. This twisting story of mother love and mother hate probes the mystery of what it means to be a mother -- or a father.