Rose Earl is proud as a peacock when Bobby, her eldest, whom she raised, like his kid brother Michael, to become moral men and model citizens, is the first member of the modest family ever to get accepted at college. It will take a while till she starts getting aware of it, but after he joins a respectable fraternity Bobby becomes ever more influenced by his roomy, the ambitious Tom Stahl, who promises him the world as they form an unbeatable team, the suave killer type and the puppy-eyed ideal son-in-law, and gradually drags him into the dark side of his glamorous life-style, complete with an adult lover, Chelsea Coals, who drags the boys even further from the righteous path, straight into crime; at last, after things have already gone wrong for them, he gets doubts and wants out, but they are too deep already. Rose's life becomes a never-ending nightmare when Bobby is suddenly missing, and she must gradually discover the grim truth before she gets to solve Bobby's fate...