The novel tells the story of Bailey Jefferson, a student who is forced to sleep with a wealthy elderly man to pay for her grandmother's medical bills by her younger half-sister, Rhonda Jefferson. After Bailey sleeps with the man, Rhonda reneges on their agreement to give Bailey $500,000 and instead offers her only $50,000. Bailey is furious, but Rhonda shows no remorse. Later, Rhonda gives birth to triplets but decides to have two of the babies killed, leaving Bailey with only one child. Seven years later, Rhonda is being pursued by bodyguards, and it is suggested that she may have done something criminal.
Bailey sees a child about 6-7 years old lying motionless in a corner and touches the child's foot to check if he's breathing. She is about to leave but hears the child whisper "mommy" and decides to take him with her to the hospital. She finds out from the news on TV that the child, Maxton, is actually a high-profile missing child from the Luther family. Bailey then realizes that the child she saved is the son of the man who had been chasing her for hacking a bank account, Artemis Luther. She also learns that Maxton has severe autism and has never spoken before. When Artemis comes to the hospital to thank Bailey for saving his son, Maxton suddenly becomes agitated and grabs Bailey's arm, saying that he doesn't have a mommy. Bailey knows that Rhonda, Artemis' wife, tricked him into bed to get pregnant and earn a ticket into the Luther family. This causes Bailey's heart to ache as she thinks about the death of her own son.
