The book opens with the protagonist, a schoolteacher, being fired because she has been accused of molesting her students. In reality, she reported to the police that one of her students was being abused at home, and since the child's mother's boyfriend is involved in the Albanian mafia, he decided to use his resources to ruin the protagonist's reputation by starting the molestation rumor. Although there are no formal charges, the protagonist is constantly worried that others will recognize her from the news and hate her on sight. Meanwhile, the student that the protagonist was attempting to protect gets sold into the Albanian mafia's sex trafficking ring. She and other girls are drugged, held in squalor against their will, and forced to have sex with adult men. They are in this situation for most of the book until they are rescued towards the end. Even before the student was kidnapped, she was in an abusive household. Her mother's boyfriend made passes at her, and her mother called her a slut for attracting him. The mother excused the behavior taking place by saying that she herself had been sexually involved with adult men when she was her daughter's age and that it isn't a big deal. A woman who is the mafia boss's second in command is also in an abusive relationship with him. The mafia boss brags that he has "subjected her to every degradation possible." This woman threatens to allow the protagonist to be raped the same way she has been, but this doesn't end up happening. Worthy of note: an FBI agent who is trying to bring down the Albanian mafia becomes aware of the schoolteacher getting unwittingly wrapped up in their business. Before this agent meets her, he immediately becomes infatuated with her from her photos. They happen to meet at a party, and the FBI agent doesn't reveal that he already knows who she is. They have sex. When the schoolteacher finds out later that the FBI agent already knew about her before they met, she feels very betrayed and assumes that he only had sex with her to get information out of her. He is able to convince her later that he is genuinely interested in her, but it takes some doing.