In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids --- five residents of Campisi Hall --- never show up at dinner. As the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix and Stella --- The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers and TikTok sleuths call them --- come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers that have come to cause them peril, or a threat to the friend group from within?

For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. The car door ripping open. The crushing blow to the head. The hands yanking him from the vehicle. His girlfriend Ali’s piercing scream as she is taken. With no trace of Ali or the car, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Ryan. He’s never charged, though that doesn’t matter to the podcasters and internet trolls. Now, Ryan has changed his last name and entered law school. While on a summer trip abroad to Italy with his law-school classmates, Ryan gets a call from his father: Ali's car has finally been found, submerged in a lake in his hometown. Inside are two dead men and a cryptic note with five words written on the envelope in Ali’s handwriting: If something happens to me…  Then, halfway around the world, Ryan sees the man who has haunted his dreams since that night.

Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down --- after the disappearance of several kids --- the three were split up. Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live accomplished --- if troubled --- lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them. To survive, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their shared past --- a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.

On New Year’s Eve 1999, four teenagers working late at a Blockbuster Video in New Jersey are attacked. Only one inexplicably survives. Police quickly identify a suspect, the boyfriend of one of the victims, who flees and is never seen again. Fifteen years later, more teenage employees are attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again only one makes it out alive. In the aftermath of the latest crime, three lives intersect: the lone survivor of the Blockbuster massacre, who’s forced to relive the horrors of her tragedy; the brother of the fugitive accused, who’s convinced the police have the wrong suspect; and FBI agent Sarah Keller, who must delve into the secrets of both nights to uncover the truth about murders on the night shift.

Matt Pine’s mom, dad, little brother and sister have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain. Matt’s older brother, Danny --- currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend, Charlotte --- was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. But the night Charlotte was killed, Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty. As the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case, Matt must unearth the truth behind the crime that sent his brother to prison, forcing him to confront his every last fear.