Hideaway

The story begins with the death of Liam Sullivan, patriarch of a storied Hollywood dynasty. Born in County Clare, Ireland, Liam emigrated to America as a teenager and became one of the most celebrated actors of the Golden Age. He married actress Rosemary Ryan, and together they built an estate in Big Sur, California, called Sullivan's Rest. Their son Hugh became a leading man, and Hugh's son Aidan continued the tradition by marrying actress Charlotte Dupont. Their daughter, Caitlyn (Cate), made her film debut as a toddler. When Liam dies at 92 in February 2001, the family gathers at Sullivan's Rest. Rosemary announces she will move to Ireland and gives Hugh the Big Sur property.

During the memorial, 10-year-old Cate organizes a game of hide-and-seek with her cousins. She runs to a California bay tree near the garage, a spot her mother secretly showed her that morning and told her to save for the last game. A man disguised as a catering server injects her with a sedative and loads her into a van. Grant Sparks, Charlotte's personal trainer and secret lover, drives Cate to an unoccupied cabin three miles away, where his partner, Frank Denby, a small-time grifter, waits. They lock Cate in a dark upstairs bedroom with nailed-shut windows and terrorize her with masks and a gun.

Suspecting the food they bring is drugged, Cate pours the soup and milk down the toilet, keeps the spoon as a tool, and pretends to sleep. She overhears Sparks on the phone, calling the other person "lover" and asking whether "the nanny's phone" was used to shift blame onto Cate's nanny, Nina Torez. Using the spoon, Cate pries the nails from the window locks, ties bedsheets into a rope, and escapes through the second-story window into the dark woods.

After hours of wandering, Cate follows a light to the Cooper ranch and slips through the unlocked front door. Twelve-year-old Dillon Cooper discovers her during a late-night refrigerator raid, speaks to her gently, and wakes his mother, Julia, and grandmother, Maggie Hudson. Julia tends Cate's wounds and calls 911 and Cate's father. Aidan and Hugh arrive, and Sheriff Red Buckman and Deputy Michaela Wilson take Cate's statement and find the cabin with evidence confirming her account.

The next morning, Cate's memories expose Charlotte's role. She recalls Charlotte showing her the hiding spot, and Rosemary confirms she saw Charlotte and Cate walking together at sunrise. Charlotte slips and refers to "them," revealing knowledge of two kidnappers before anyone has disclosed this detail. Nina reveals Charlotte's affair with Sparks and identifies his distinctive ringtone, which Cate heard during the overheard call. Red bluffs Charlotte into confessing. Denby, caught at a motel and furious that Sparks cheated him, provides a full statement. Sparks is arrested. Charlotte takes a plea deal and receives a 10-year sentence, eligible for release in seven. Sparks and Denby each face 20 to 25 years. Aidan files for divorce and full custody.

Hugh visits the Cooper ranch to express gratitude and learns that Dillon's father was killed in the line of duty and that Dillon's beloved dog recently died. Hugh takes Dillon to a rescue organization, where the boy adopts two border collie-mix puppies, cementing a lasting bond between the families.

Aidan puts his career on hold and takes Cate to Ireland to live with Rosemary in County Mayo. The quiet countryside helps Cate heal, though nightmares and panic attacks persist. After Rosemary dies in 2008, 17-year-old Cate returns to Los Angeles. Hugh suggests a small part in a romantic comedy called Absolutely Maybe, and Cate insists on auditioning rather than being handed the role. She wins the part and befriends her costar, Darlie Maddigan, who becomes her closest friend.

Charlotte is released on parole after seven years, triggering Cate's first panic attack in years. Shortly after, Cate receives an anonymous threatening call, a spliced recording using her own childhood voice and her mother's voice. Charlotte then ambushes Cate at a professional lunch, grabbing her and begging forgiveness while a paparazzo captures photos. Cate flees in a panic, and the tabloids paint Charlotte as the victim.

Cate completes a second film, Change of Scene, under intense media pressure. At a Sullivan family Christmas in Big Sur, she reconnects with the now-grown Dillon at the Cooper ranch. She announces she wants to move to New York with Lily, Hugh's wife, who is preparing for a Broadway revival of Mame. After a difficult conversation, Aidan agrees.

In New York, Cate gains independence. She takes summer classes at New York University (NYU) and begins dating Noah Tanaka, a talented dancer in the chorus of Mame. One night after walking Cate to a cab, Noah is brutally beaten by two men who use racial slurs and Cate's name. His family blames Cate, and months later Noah ends the relationship, unable to separate his feelings from the violence attached to her name.

Cate discovers her true calling when director Boyd West overhears her demonstrating voices and accents at lunch with Darlie and offers her the lead voice role in an animated short. She builds a thriving career in voice-overs for commercials, animated films, audiobooks, and video games, working from a soundproofed closet in her apartment.

Years later, Cate moves back to Big Sur to be near Hugh and Lily, who have transformed the guesthouse at Sullivan's Rest into a home with a professional recording studio. She reestablishes her bond with the Cooper family and develops a deepening connection with Dillon, now a confident rancher who has built his own house on the property.

A pattern of violence emerges. Denby is murdered in prison, and Charlotte's former lawyer, Charles Scarpetti, is found drowned. Two men in a stolen car attempt to assassinate Red on Highway 1 before crashing off a cliff. Sheriff Michaela Wilson concludes the attacks target people connected to the kidnapping. Red and Michaela visit Sparks in prison; he denies involvement, but both are certain he is lying. Sparks then stabs himself to appear a victim and bolster his case for early release.

Behind the scenes, Sparks has manipulated Jessica Rowe, a lonely true crime writer who became his lawyer and biographer, into believing she is his soulmate. At his direction, Jessica has arranged the killings and made the threatening calls to Cate. She also poisons Charlotte's husband, Conrad Buster, an elderly billionaire, at a charity gala by slipping digitalis into his drink. Charlotte is questioned for the murder but not charged.

Cate and Dillon's relationship matures from friendship to romance. After a night of dancing at a local roadhouse, they become intimate. He declares his love; she asks for time, explaining that for Sullivans, saying those words means forever.

Jessica makes a final move, hiding in a staff member's car trunk to pass through the estate's security gates and confronting Cate in her cottage with a gun. She plans to kill Cate and frame Charlotte by writing Charlotte's name in Cate's blood. Cate uses her acting skills to stall Jessica, arguing that a live witness would be more damaging to Charlotte than a dead body. When Dillon arrives with the dogs, Cate grabs Jessica's gun hand while Dillon wrenches the weapon away. Jessica is arrested and confesses, ensuring Sparks will spend the rest of his life in prison.

During a walk on the beach, Cate tells Dillon she loves him. He proposes with his mother's engagement ring, and Cate accepts. Plans begin for a May wedding at Sullivan's Rest, and Cate reflects that the kidnapping, though it shaped her life in painful ways, led her to Dillon and to home.