One morning, six-year-old Alex Selky says goodbye to his mother and leaves for school. Susan Selky returns from work that afternoon and waits for Alex to come home. When it becomes apparent that he never reached school, Susan notifies her estranged husband, and the police are called in. Sergeant Al Menetti, who leads the police hunt during the agonising months that follow, is compelled by his sympathy for Mrs Selky to continue the search, long after his instints tell him that it is hopeless.