A late summer night in 1990 a young pregnant woman is brutally murdered by being buried in the sand, to slowly become submerged by the tide. 25 years later, the sadistic murder remains unsolved. Olivia Rönning receives the task of studying the case as a cold case exercise at the Police Academy. Olivia becomes almost obsessed with the murder when she discovers that her father previously worked with the investigation. She quickly realizes that she must get a hold of the principal investigator, detective Tom Stilton, but he seems to have disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Sons and daughters of international billionaires are sent to an boot camp where they are taught basic survival skills in hopes it will teach them responsibility. When they are taken hostage and taken for ransom by kidnappers, they will need to utilize every skill they learned to survive.