Camile (Marcia Gay Harden) and her child are well known in their community: Esme as the sickly, childlike, wheelchair-bound daughter and Camile as the perfect caretaker and mother. They seem a perfect pair until Camile is found stabbed to death in her home, and Esme has vanished, believed to be kidnapped by the killer. But when Esme is found, a terrible secret emerges: She was not kidnapped but ran away with her boyfriend after working with him to kill her mother. More than that, Esme is perfectly healthy, mentally and physically, and has been a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, forced to believe she was ill by her controlling, abusive mother.