Chris Ramsay is living a normal, quiet existence in a quiet suburb in Dallas. He lives alone with his controlling father, in a home with bare walls. There's no family photos. It's all routine. Predictable.

Then one evening Chris turns on the TV. There, suddenly before him, he sees a photo of a little kid on Santa's knee, a kid who's missing and whose computer-aged face is an exact duplicate of Chris's. A kid stolen from his mother 13 years ago, a kid who has disappeared from his home in Kingston, Ontario.

Travelling by bus, meeting strangers, assuming a new identity to escape detection by his father, grabbing opportunities as they are available, Chris makes his way home. And when he finds himself almost there . . . it's not over.