Dana Nolan is a TV reporter who is kidnapped and tortured by a serial killer called Doc Holliday until she kills him. She suffers a traumatic brain injury in the process, as well as psychological damage that will take much longer to heal. The news reporter is now the news story, and she considers herself as Before Dana and After Dana, as if she were two different people. Dana soon realizes that she needs goals in order to move ahead. She starts by trying to relearn her own life, reading her old high-school journal, and slowly her memories start coming back. The summer before college, her best friend, Casey, disappeared, and as Dana looks at her own life, she also looks at Casey's. Casey's old boyfriend, who was always under suspicion surrounding Casey's disappearance, is back in town, now a veteran and suffering from PTSD and a brain injury himself. Seven years have passed, and as these two damaged people try to find ways to live a normal life, solving the old mystery gives them focus.