More than a hundred years ago a series of murders committed by a family who called themselves the Benders took place in Kansas. The father, mother, son and daughter took in weary travelers and offered a warm bed to sleep in for the night, but usually during dinner brought more than a hot meal to the unsuspecting guests and later robbed them of their goods and hurriedly buried the bodies. The Benders were never punished for their crimes, and in modern-day Kansas when an ex-police detective turned missing persons investigator is sent to determine the identity of a certain innkeeper outside sleepy Coffeyville, he finds himself wondering if history is about to repeat itself in a very personal way, more meaningful to him than he could ever have imagined.