Rhianna Coats is the classic example of long-term consequences of child abuse. She has memory lapses and flashbacks. She is now thirty-six and wonders if everyone has blackouts or just her.
Bill is her off and on boyfriend. He's quick-witted, sarcastic, and slightly verbally abusive. He fills a gap in her life and keeps her laughing most of the time, so she tolerates his less-than-desirable behavior.
She soon meets Mike, whom she is skeptical of because he asks too many questions and answers too few. Mike is aware of abductions occurring nationwide whereby victims do not return.
She is chosen by several corrupt drug-company physicians to take part in an experimental pharmaceutical study in Brazil. She is abducted from an isolated area close to the Canadian border near her home in Northern Minnesota.
In Brazil, a rainforest plant renders the active ingredient which enables her to traverse her past. Long forgotten events are relocated in her mind to a place where they will no longer cause stress or memory lapses.
She realizes, while she's been going away, she hasn't been just going away. Someone else has been taking over while she's gone. This "someone" is a stand-in for life, who patiently awaits recognition.