Carl Ray Hicks, a piano teacher with psychopathic tendencies due to his overbearing mother, picks up and kidnaps Dawn while she's hitchhiking a ride home to her mother. Keeping her stashed in a secret area of his house, he begins subjecting her to various torture rituals to satisfy his violent desires. Bound to each other in a love/hate relationship, when Dawn finally escapes she finds herself undeniably drawn to return for the fulfillment only Carl could provide for her.