Plot
 | This section's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(May 2021) |
Mary Stauffer is a devoted high-school teacher and missionary who cherishes life with her husband Irv and their family. One ordinary day in May 1980 after leaving a beauty salon with her eight-year-old daughter Beth their world changes in an instant when they are ambushed at gunpoint by a man Mary soon realizes is Ming Sen Shiue a former student who has stalked her for years.
Ming forces Mary and Beth into the trunk of their car along with a young boy named Jason who witnesses the horror. He drives them to a remote area strands Jason and kills him out of fear that he will raise the alarm. He takes Mary and Beth back to his home where he locks them in a closet and threatens to kill their family if they try to escape. Inside that cramped, dark space Mary and Beth cling to each other Mary relying on her faith to hold her steady and hope to guide her.
Ming teases and terrorizes them he videotapes Mary and forces her to submit to his twisted demands He rapes her and records their interactions he grapples with his obsession with her and torments Beth with threats. Mary’s resolve remains unbroken she prays reads scripture and quietly resists his attempts to break her spirit.
Irv back home senses something has gone terribly wrong He notices signs in their house dirt on the floor and a hole in the ceiling police begin piecing together that the kidnapper may know Mary intimately and start combing through old school yearbooks.
Over many days Mary and Beth endure the unimaginable Their captor occasionally moves beyond the closet he takes them on a road trip in his RV during which Beth is allowed to call her father on Father’s Day This brief moment of contact brings Irv hope and fuels Mary’s determination to survive.
On the Fourth of July Ming takes them to watch fireworks Mary is terrified but she watches carefully waiting for a chance. Their salvation comes after seven grueling weeks of captivity Mary finally manages to remove the hinge pin on the closet door She and Beth break free though they are chained together Mary dials 911 from the phone in the kitchen and they hide behind an RV until law enforcement arrives.
Responding officers find the two chained together with fear and relief mixed in their eyes And the maniac who stole their freedom is caught at work. In the aftermath Mary and Beth are reunited with Irv and their son Steven The pain and trauma remain but Mary’s faith endures She later reveals that Ming Sen Shiue received a life sentence and that Jason’s body was discovered during the investigation.
This is not merely a story of abduction This is a story of survival faith and the unwavering love of a mother willing to endure the unendurable to bring her child home
