When state high school track champion Suzanne Czarnopias goes missing, her sleepy hometown that calls itself "The Heart of the Finger Lakes" is shocked. When the newspaper's new, young managing editor, Jim Stanton, breaks the story on the front page, the town's civic leaders are surprised. When the police find no clues to Suzanne's fate, that shock and surprise quickly turn to anger; first at the police, and then at the newspaper which continues to report the story on the front page. That anger gets livid when their newspaper prints letters to the editor from an unknown writer claiming to be the culprit. That anger and fear focuses on Jim Stanton. As the community questions the newspaper's "sensational" approach to covering this story, rumors about the possibility of Stanton's role in the crime make their way through the town. While these issues dial up the pressure on the young editor, the mysterious letter writer cranks up the heat by threatening to make Stanton's daughter the next victim if he fails to keep the story on the front page. Combining his newspaper skills with his military training for the first time as a civilian, Stanton finds himself facing his first test as an investigator - with everything near and dear to him on the line.