Ripley's title was the slogan of heroine Blanche Potter's father, who went on a shooting spree in a California shopping mall in 1996. He took Blanche, his then-seven-year-old daughter, with him, insuring that Blanche would be forever traumatized. Blanche has moved mountains to escape her past, cutting off past relationships, becoming a documentary filmmaker, and forever guarding herself against any chance that her past might become known. But, of course, it does, in the shape of an investigative journalist who shows up at her documentary's premiere, outing her and telling her that her mother has just died. The plot spans out from this discovery.