Rachel has been held captive in a shed for five years, enduring nightly assault and Aidan's strict rules of behavior.

Aidan tells Rachel that his wife has died and his in-laws are selling the property where he and Cecilia live.

Rachel proposes that Aidan bring her along to his new house rather than kill her before the move.

Aidan introduces Rachel to his daughter Cecilia as a tenant renting a spare room in their new rental house.

Aidan handcuffs Rachel to a bedroom radiator and warns her that cameras monitor every room in the house.

After spending time alongside Emily at the community 5k race, Aidan offers her his phone number for the first time.

Aidan gives Emily a silver infinity necklace as a romantic gift; the necklace was originally made for Rachel by her friend Julie.

During Thanksgiving dinner, Rachel grabs Cecilia and tries to drag her toward the back door to escape; Cecilia screams.

Aidan beats Rachel unconscious as punishment for her escape attempt and dumps her body in the surrounding woods.

After picking the basement lock, Rachel finds stacked boxes of Polaroids depicting Aidan's victims, a revolver, and ammunition.

During the Christmas party, Rachel uses a safety pin to unlock her handcuffs and pockets the gun and Polaroids from the basement.

Armed with the revolver, Rachel forces a terrified Cecilia into Aidan's truck at gunpoint and drives away from the house.

After Emily's car stalls during the pursuit, Aidan abandons the vehicle and chases Rachel through the dark on foot.

Rachel reaches the local police station and tells officers for the first time that her real name is May Mitchell.

Emily visits May at her New York City home; May consents to an embrace, acknowledging their unique shared ordeal.

Five years into her imprisonment in a backyard shed, Rachel has survived by anticipating her captor's every move and obeying his strict rules. When Aidan's wife dies and his in-laws force him to relocate, he brings Rachel into his new home as a supposed tenant, creating a tense double life under one roof. Rachel carefully cultivates a bond with Aidan's unsuspecting daughter Cecilia while searching for the perfect moment to escape, even as Aidan pursues a romance with local bartender Emily. A failed Thanksgiving escape attempt earns Rachel a brutal beating, but she recovers and methodically gathers the evidence she needs from Aidan's basement. Armed with a gun and incriminating Polaroids, she seizes the chaos of a Christmas party to force Cecilia into Aidan's truck and drive toward freedom, finally reaching the police station and reclaiming her true identity as May Mitchell.

From captivity to freedom: 'Rachel's' core escape story.

Aidan murders a sex worker during college in an impulsive attack and steals her paperback novels as his first trophies.

Emily makes Aidan a special drink at Amandine to break the ice; when he leaves, she notices he has taken her coaster.

Handcuffed and blindfolded in Aidan's truck, Rachel glimpses the open sky for the first time in five years.

Aidan takes Rachel to the bathroom on her first morning in the house; she is shocked by her gaunt and scarred reflection.

During their first dinner together, Cecilia reveals that her father served as a hospital corpsman in the Marine Corps.

Aidan kicks Rachel hard in the calf as punishment for asking him to buy her feminine hygiene products.

Cecilia slips a stack of sanitary pads and a friendly note under Rachel's locked bedroom door, offering to bring more.

Rachel discovers her handcuff has not been properly tightened but deliberately re-tightens it, deciding the moment to escape has not arrived.

Cecilia skips school and rides a train to a neighboring town, only to find her father already waiting when she arrives.

Emily uses a hidden spare key to let herself into Aidan's house unannounced and finds Rachel standing in the hallway.

Cecilia catches Rachel in the basement and reveals she sneaks down at night to be near her late mother's belongings.

Number Nine fights back ferociously against Aidan during his attack; she is the woman whose shoe is found on hiking trails.

Emily wears Aidan's scarf to the outdoor Christmas party, hoping other guests will assume the two are romantically involved.

Aidan discovers Emily snooping in his basement during the Christmas party and grabs her wrist in a threatening grip.

Emily accepts an offer to sell Amandine and moves to New York City after Aidan's arrest becomes public knowledge.

Behind the headline events of Rachel's captivity, a web of smaller but significant moments reveals the full texture of Aidan's controlled world. His first impulsive murder during college established a pattern of trophy-taking that would persist for decades, even as his public life as a devoted family man took shape. Emily is drawn steadily deeper into his orbit through her bartending role at Amandine, her romantic obsession growing with each interaction. Rachel navigates daily humiliations and small acts of defiance, while Cecilia quietly becomes an unexpected ally by smuggling supplies and sharing basement secrets. As the Christmas party approaches, Emily's reckless intrusions and Aidan's escalating menace converge toward a breaking point, and the aftermath forces Emily to dismantle the life she built in order to escape what she narrowly survived.

The hidden moments that built and broke Aidan's world.

After being drugged at a club and waking in a hospital, Rachel withdraws from college and rents a remote cabin in upstate New York.

Aidan kidnaps Rachel at gunpoint outside her cabin; her correct use of the term 'murder of crows' causes him to keep her alive.

Aidan murders Number Two, methodically tying her up while confessing his deep love for the woman he is newly engaged to marry.

Number Three is killed just before Cecilia is born; Aidan confesses conflicted feelings about his ability to be a good parent.

Cecilia invites Rachel to watch a movie while Aidan sits nearby texting, marking the first real moment of warmth between the two women.

After requesting an after-hours visit to Amandine, Aidan leads Emily into the pantry and they have sex for the first time.

Rachel notices fresh fingernail marks on Aidan's body and deduces he has become sexually involved with someone outside the house.

Aidan stops texting Emily entirely after her unannounced Thanksgiving intrusion, abruptly withdrawing from their romantic relationship.

While recovering in Aidan's basement after her beating, Rachel reads his full name for the first time on an addressed envelope.

A wounded stray dog arrives outside the house; Rachel successfully persuades a reluctant Aidan not to euthanize the animal.

Rachel recognizes the necklace Emily is wearing as the one her friend Julie originally made for her, given away by Aidan as a trophy.

Rachel realizes Aidan lied about the surveillance cameras when he shows no awareness of Emily's earlier unauthorized visit to the house.

Number Seven's interlude reveals that Aidan confessed to being too fast with his previous victim and too nice with Rachel.

Rachel crashes Aidan's truck into a ditch; she and Cecilia run hand in hand toward town as Aidan closes in behind them.

Cecilia and the rescued dog are sent to live with Caroline's parents; May Mitchell returns home to her family in New York City.

Before Rachel was ever a captive, a traumatic assault left her isolated in a rural cabin — the exact vulnerability Aidan exploited when he kidnapped her at gunpoint, kept alive only because of an offhand remark she made. Scattered victim interludes trace the quiet arc of his crimes through his own major life milestones, from his engagement to his wife to the eve of his daughter's birth. Back in the house, a series of small revelations — Aidan's secret affair with Emily, a recognizable necklace worn by the wrong woman, and the discovery that the security cameras were a lie — steadily tilt the balance of power away from Aidan. Rachel methodically rebuilds her strength and her resolve, while the mounting evidence in the basement transforms her suspicions into certainty. A final desperate crash and sprint through the dark delivers her to justice, after which the survivors of Aidan's orbit are each sent toward separate, fragile new beginnings.