Convicted for covering up for Kit Parker, her serial killer lover's, crimes, Karen Miller is released from prison. But, because of the nature of the murders she was associated with and because she eventually gave evidence against her boyfriend, she is released into witness protection and given a new identity: Emma Hall. Her protection officer Pete Guillory promises to guide her through this new life but warns her to live quietly here in the Louisiana bayou where her new home will be. He warns her not to draw attention to herself and above all, to never ever involve herself with young women - her boyfriend's choice of victim. However, she panics on her first night alone and ventures into the local town where she defends a girl against her tormenters. A strange friendship grows between the two until this troubled girl is later found dead. It triggers in Emma, previously locked, traumatic memories of her boyfriend's crimes and she starts to wonder whether she did more than just provide ...

Emma is in turmoil after the suicide of her lover, Kit and the death of Jess. She confides in Pete and takes him to the site of Jess' murder: but the body has gone. Pete worries Emma is becoming unstable again, and that she has hallucinated the murder of Jess and the crazed man in the bayou. Emma wrestles with doubt over what she saw while also experiencing horrific flashbacks that suggest she was involved with one of Kit's murders. The discovery of a hook in a sore on her leg, festering since her escape from the bayou shack, convinces her that she didn't imagine the horrors of last night. She begins to research the swamp monster Jess mentioned to her and discovers a dark mythology in the bayou. She makes a promise to herself to find the truth about Jess and the strange town of Saint James while once again crossing a red line in forming a strange connection with another young woman, Rose Lord, the bully of Jess. An unsettling question begins to form: if the memory of Jess is real ...

Pete claims not yet to have followed up on Jess at Saint Jerome House. He's a stranger, it's difficult to ask those kind of questions without drawing Emma into it. Instead he drills down into the blackspot in her memory, a period of several days in Minnesota, before she was found with Kit and arrested. He thinks she's projecting that trauma onto the death of Jess. However when Emma learns, through her growing connection with a local cop, that Pete worked at the Saint Jerome House, the group home Jess lived at, she becomes wary of him and the increasing control he has over her life. Unsure who to trust, Emma makes contact with her past. But a chilling memory of her with Kit, and an unconscious Theresa, gives a whole new view of Emma. Mary receives a visit from Van Walker, a father of a missing girl he believes was also a victim of Parker. The girl disappeared at a festival in Minnesota, the same way other girls disappeared. Mary promises to help him and claims his daughter's ...

Emma in freefall at her growing distrust of Pete. She changes the locks, avoids his calls. We see a flashback to how they met and the deal Karen made to gain witness protection. Their relationship disintegrates when she learns Pete lied about who the cabin belonged to and that it is his. When she finds an intimate picture of him with a young girl from his time at Saint Jerome House she fears for her own safety and moves into the storm shelter outside - where she finds items that hint at darker aspects of Pete's nature. Her growing paranoia derails the burgeoning connection with Tom who begins to ask about her life before coming to the town. While two key men in her life fall away, her connection to juveniles in the town intensifies as Emma digs deeper into the bayou mythology and the mysterious Abel through a friend of Jess' at the group home. Her relationship deepens with Rose who is secretly falling in love with her and hints at dangers in the town. A violent encounter over the cat ...

Emma arrives in Minnesota. She retrieves a photograph of a couple and an address from a lockup of Esther's. The address takes her to a house in which a four year old girl plays and as Emma secretly comes face to face with the girl we see they have the same unusually colour eyes, one blue one brown. This girl is her daughter, Freja. This is the secret Esther has kept. Pete and John attend Esther's funeral to wait for Emma who doesn't show. Emma and Pete confront each other over their suspicions of what the other has done and reach a new accord. Pete explains away the photograph and the eerie items in the storm shelter and there is renewed trust between them. Emma is forced to make an agonising decision - to leave her daughter in Minnesota and to try and win her back through completing her rehabilitation. Pete promises he will support her and piece back the memories she can't unlock from before Freya's birth. Mary rocked by guilt at what she's done loses herself in illicit sex with her ...

A new energy about Emma, determined to start over and be the person who will win back her daughter. She gives back the kitten she stole. She apologises to Rose but now Rose knows she's lying about who she is everything has changed. When Emma confides in Rose about Jess' death Rose voices her fears that perhaps Emma was involved. Emma finally shows her true feelings for Tom and trusts him with the reveal of her daughter. It will be Tom who helps her move closer to the truth about Abel and the conspiracy at the heart of the town. Mary seeks confession for her sins and tries to call off the twisted relationship with John and cancelling his credit card. John seeks out the last of his family, his sister on her wedding day and tries to connect but she only compounds his disconnection with the world. Mary stares into her own abyss when she is banished from Theresa's swim hall, because of her exploitation of the Walkers, by the swim coach who represents so much of her daughter's success and ...

Emma wrestles with the news of Theresa's remains - found with a personalised necklace close to where Karen gave birth. She faces renewed questioning from and denies knowledge of the death. Pete believes this is the trauma that has caused her memory blackspots. When Caterina Keep, the local seer senses Emma is troubled it compounds the doubt she feels about her own nature and begins to question what she could be capable of. Tom tries to pull her away from her dark thoughts but Emma is struggling - her flashbacks of Theresa suggest Theresa was trying to warn Karen about Kit. Theresa was afraid of him. In a bid to make sense of her growing fear she did something to Theresa Emma goes to Caterina Keep who begins to unlock a chilling memory in Emma of the Minnesota woods. The visit to Caterina brings about a horrific discovery - Tina Monro, the troubled girl from Saint Jerome house is in a distressed state and heavily drugged at the same motel. The mystery of the town is getting darker and ...

The FBI close in on Emma for questioning over the remains in Minnesota. Emma pursues the truth about Jess - unlocking Jess' phone reveals calls to one local number. Calling the number puts Emma firmly in the sights of Bodie Lord. John gleans information from Caterina about what Emma shared with her. Emma confides finally in Tom, about Jess and Tina, brings comfort and shock - he knows who she was and wants one assurance: did she help Kit Parker? And Emma cannot give him an answer he needs: she hopes not. Tom, in trying to dig into the Carlton Lodge Motel falls into John's web and is abducted. Emma now without Pete or Tom continues to try and make sense of the past by reconnecting with the boss of the Minnesota hair salon she worked at. From Marnie she learns that Kit was having an affair with Theresa before Emma met her and that's why the salon workers hated him. Emma now makes sense of everything and goes to Pete to confess: she killed Theresa because she found out about her affair ...

Emma makes sense of Kit's use of a question mark tattoo on women he would later go on to murder. Her flashback is of Amy Walker with a question mark tattoo. Pete suggests it was not a heart Kit was tattooing on Karen but a question mark and the needle slipped. They realise Kit meant to kill her and instead fell in love with her. Pete suggests memories formed in a traumatic state can only be recovered in a traumatic one. He suggests the trauma of witnessing Amy Walker's dead body has caused the memory blackout. Jay brings prescription drugs that Jess used to take and that he also found in Tina's room. Another disturbing link between the two girls. Emma receives a visit from Lisa, Pete's wife who accuses her of having an affair with Pete. Emma reassures her she's not and digs into Lisa background as a Saint Jerome House girl. Lisa reveals the true darkness is an exploitation ring, girls at the home are harvested for their eggs for fertility treatment led by Bodie Lord. The girls are ...

Emma fights to escape a terrifying John Tyler who she now knows is a serial sexual predator and has hunted her down on behalf of Mary who will come into a scene of brutal destruction and find Emma bound and gagged and feels guilt at what she has done. Emma tries to warn her John is still here but Mary is sure the cabin is empty. John make a chilling return and the two women kill him to survive. In the disposal of his body Emma is forced to tell Mary the truth. But it is a truth she doesn't want to hear. Emma is not the monster who took her daughter, she's the monster who replaced her. She reveals Kit and Theresa were in a relationship before she ever met Kit. And it was Theresa who came into her life. She tells Mary that Theresa held her own damaging secrets about abuse she suffered from a young age at the hands of her swim coach. Mary is destroyed by this and swears to tell the truth about Karen Miller so Emma can live safely in the open again. Mary reneges on this, unable to crucify...