The first time Alice Jenkins locks Jesse Eging in the closet as a child, he thinks it's only a game. But as Jesse's captivity grows longer and food becomes scarce, he realizes that if he and his siblings do not find a way to escape, they will surely die.

When Dreamer meets Teddy she sees a broken young man and hopes her love will change him. Instead, he returns her love with fear, cruelty and control.

When Abbi sees her boyfriend's darkness, she tries to help but cannot. She hopes being a father will change him, but it doesn't. When his cruelty becomes too much to handle, she leaves and quickly discovers who her boyfriend was all along.

When Letisha meets Phillip, his charm lures her in. But when his dark side emerges, Letisha finds herself trapped with a monster.

When Claire Throssell meets Darren Sykes, she thinks her future husband's overwhelming displays of affection are signs of love. She fails to see that Darren is out to control her, and if he doesn't get his way, the revenge he takes will be terrible.

William Knorr's mother, Theresa, always threatened that if she ever went to jail for what she had done, she would take him down with her; after years spent helping her keep the horrors secret, he may go to jail with her.

As a boy, Eric Witte's father taught him to protect his family. But as his father grows increasingly violent, Eric realizes that he is the evil his family needs protection from.

As a child, Corey Breininger's stepmother, Judith Hawkey, coerces him into doing something horrible; he keeps her deadly secret for years, too afraid to tell anyone the truth.

As a child, Lori Hodge doesn't understand what she sees when her father, Gene Keidel, digs a hole in the yard in the middle of the night, but as she gets older and realizes the truth, she becomes a threat; he will stop at nothing to keep his secret.

When Ryan's mother marries Blaine Nelson he hopes he'll gain a fun-loving stepdad. Instead, he gets chaos, pain and fear. And while Blaine relishes tormenting Ryan, he can never imagine just how dark and sadistic his stepfather truly is.

For years, every time Gabi Blair walks past the freezer, she shudders at the thought of the horrors hidden inside; forced to keep secret her mother's crimes, she prays that someone will discover the truth before she becomes her mother's next victim.

As a young boy, Michael Blanco had seen his mother do violent things that seemed straight out of the movies. But he never once doubted that she did those things to keep their family safe—until the day he learned the truth.

Charles Sexton believes his father, Eddie, is God; he and his siblings are loyal disciples until the family descends into madness, and Sexton finds out that crossing his parents means death.

Melissa Moore loved being “Daddy’s Little Girl” and to her, her father Keith Jesperson, could do no wrong. But as she got older, that admiration was replaced by fear, and then by the horror of learning how close she had come to being his next victim.

As a little girl, Karen Kuzma adores her older brother, then she sees changes in him she doesn’t understand; it never occurs to her that he will become the most infamous serial killer in American history.

Kat Harris and Marla Kreuger love Lawrence Harris each in her own way; they dismiss his dark obsession as childish and strange, but harmless; neither of them realize he is preparing to sacrifice innocent lives for his evil purpose.

When Matt Roth is just a boy, his stepfather brings him along on handyman jobs; he thinks he is just there to help his dad, but he doesn't realize he is walking into the scenes of brutal murders.

Victoria and Christine Lisowski live in fear of their mother, Sungnam Kwon-Lisowski. They never imagine that this Christmas they will feel lucky to survive the holiday and their mother's crazed vengeance.

Tiffany Shore grows up knowing her father is evil but keeps his secrets, then she escapes only to be devastated by the discovery that he has committed acts far more heinous than she could have ever imagined.

Reginald Brooks began acting strangely, and Beverly Stephens worried that her husband’s bizarre behavior was a warning sign that something wasn’t right. But she never suspected there was a killer lurking inside him.

When Joshua Hudnall goes off to war, he feels more at home than he ever did around his mother; while Joshua thinks he’s escaped his mother’s torment, she sets her sights on someone else and destroys their family from within.

When Elizabeth Flores was a child, her sister, Louise, tried to shield her from a horrible family secret. But when Louise met David Turpin, that all changed. How did Louise go from running from monsters to becoming one herself?

Teri Knight spent weeks driving cross-country, desperately searching for the secret her ex-husband, Manuel Gehring, took to his grave. It took years before a stranger finally solved the mystery that haunted Teri ever since learning Manuel died in prison.

Jon Eason hopes every day that someone will murder his son Dylan in prison; Dylan Eason’s life sentence without parole doesn’t appease his father, who admits wishing for his own son’s death is horrible but feels Dylan deserves it for his 2016 crimes.

Christina Gaines goes on a date with Patrick Fowler, a supposed "perfect gentleman." She soon discovers Patrick's true nature and realizes she's been duped. Now that Christina is in his grasp, she must find a way to avoid becoming his next victim.