Two seven-year-old girls are kidnapped from a depressed area of South Carolina that has terrible schools. The kidnapper says that he will not harm the girls; he only wants a year to catch them up academically and physically with children who have been raised in wealthier areas. The kidnapper works closely with the two girls. The girls adapt to their new life with the kidnapper and even learn to love his Newfoundland dog. FBI agents suspect that the children are being sexually abused. If the girls are returned, how will the parents continue the academic progress started by the kidnapper? Or will they even want to, given how they hate him? Can the FBI, or a news reporter who got involved with the case, find the kidnapper? The kidnapper does not include religion in his teaching methods with the two girls, and this causes controversy in South Carolina. And the kidnapper has to acknowledge the tragic series of events that his actions eventually trigger.