When Mallory Shields graduates college from her idyllic hometown in the Midwest, she embarks on an adventure with her best friend Jenna, taking a gap year to explore the other side of the world. Their journey quickly takes an unexpected turn and the two young women find themselves in danger and exposed to a world of crime, abuse, and the most dehumanizing conditions possible. Motivated to return to their lives and families back home, the women struggle navigating a corrupt system and forces beyond their control. Faced with the loss of time, betrayal, and extraordinary guilt, Mallory learns she must find strength she never knew possible and make hard compromises to become her true self. This tale follows their individual experiences as captives and how those circumstances impact the future and relationships they long to return to. The determination and strong will of the leading characters gives the reader a sense of how honesty, regret, time, and redemption work together to bring hope to a difficult situation as the characters discover what friendship and reclamation really mean.