प्लॉट

A mentally unbalanced man kidnaps the woman carrying his child to prevent her from having an abortion.

Theresa Barnes works with her friend Cindy Carmichael in a flower shop. One day she stumbles with Josh Taylor in an amusing park and she believes he is her Prince Charming. They move in together and soon Theresa is warned by a scared woman that Josh is a violent unbalanced man. Further she learns that she is pregnant and she has an argument with Josh. She leaves him and decides to abort the child, but Josh anticipates her movement and manipulates her obstetrician Dr. Shuman and her parents. Theresa decides to travel to an isolated cabin by the lake in the woods, and locks her in a pitch black room. When the local storekeeper Sam Logan passes by the cabin, Josh kills him. Theresa tries to escape and Josh brings her to the city and releases her in front of a group protesting against abortion. Theresa tries to abort the child but Dr. Shuman refuses to do the procedure. Then she goes to the police, but Josh manipulates the media and hires the efficient attorney Deidre Stiles to go to the court. Sergeant Rutherford believes that Theresa is telling the truth and tries to associate the death of Logan to Josh. What will happen in the trial?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Theresa "Teri" Lyras (Mili Avital), who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, has a new boyfriend named Josh Taylor (Johnathon Schaech), who teaches her rock climbing. Teri also has a cat named Roman, and she works at a florist with her friend Cindy Carmichael (Naomi Campbell). Soon into their relationship, Teri and Josh are living together at the Castevet Apartments.

One day at the florist, Josh's former girlfriend, a scarred woman (Monica Moench), shows up and shows Teri a scar, warning Teri that Josh is a violent man, and that Josh has also done this kind of thing to other women. The woman tells Teri to stay away from Josh. When the woman disappears, Teri goes outside to find her, and Teri doubles over in pain. A visit to a doctor brings the news that Teri is almost 8 weeks pregnant.

That night, Josh tells Teri that he didn't get a job that he tried to get, and Josh is angry about it. Teri tries to tell Josh that she's pregnant, but she doesn't get a chance to -- Josh flips out and rapes her, and then Josh trashes the apartment. On the next day, at a restaurant, Teri tells Josh that she wants nothing more to do with him, and Josh begs her to change her mind. Josh tells Teri that he saw a lab report that came in the mail, and it said that she's pregnant. Teri tells Josh that this baby would be the most wonderful thing in her life if Josh WASN'T the father. That night, Josh finds the scarred woman at a hotel, and he kills her.

On the next day, Teri visits her obstetrician, Dr. Shuman (Scott Wilkinson), and tells Shuman that she wants an abortion. Shuman tells Teri that Josh came in this morning and said that he and Teri had an argument, and Josh begged Shuman to refuse to do an abortion on Teri.

In a greenhouse, Teri tells Cindy that she doesn't want to have a baby that Josh is the father of. Cindy admits that she can't get pregnant, and that's why Cindy spends so much time at the local parenthood center with other women. Teri says she needs to think about a lot of things, and Cindy decides to give Teri a three-week vacation from her job. Teri calls her mother, and tells her mother she's going on vacation, and Teri's mother tells her that Josh called and mentioned possibly marrying Teri. Josh is now obsessed with Teri.

For her vacation, Teri drives to a remote vacation cabin by Moon Lake -- but Josh is there, and he locks Teri in the cabin's smallest bedroom. Josh is determined to stop Teri from having an abortion. Josh tells Teri that no one will worry about her, because he called her parents, who live in Denver, Colorado, and Cindy will be taking care of Roman and the plants.

Teri starts trying to think of ways to escape from Josh. One night, she sneaks out of the cabin and heads to Josh's boat. Josh follows her, and she hits him with an oar. Josh still takes her back to the cabin, and locks her back up. Josh also sends postcards to Cindy and to Teri's parents, to make them think Teri is still safely on vacation.

Sam Logan (R. G. Armstrong), an elderly man that Josh frequently talks to, runs a nearby general store. Days after Teri's attempted escape, Sam is looking through a window, and he sees Josh assaulting Teri. Josh locks Teri back up in the bedroom, and then goes outside and kills Sam, leaving Sam's body in the lake. Later, Sheriff Cudahy (David Jensen) and his deputies find Sam's body.

In a second attempt to escape, Teri cuts herself on the leg, close to her groin area, and makes Josh think she's hemorrhaging and losing the baby so Josh will leave the cabin to get help. After Josh leaves, Teri dresses her wound, and leaves the cabin, but Josh finds her, and takes her back to the cabin again. Finally, two months after taking her hostage, Josh takes Teri back into Salt Lake City, and releases her -- right where an anti-abortion demonstration is taking place, which shows that Josh is determined to get his point across to Teri.

Teri goes straight to Shuman, and tells him that if she doesn't have an abortion, then Josh will be in her life forever. She tells Shuman that Josh held her hostage for two months. Shuman tells Teri that she's far enough along in her pregnancy to where her baby is now classified as a live human being. State law says that Teri can no longer seek an abortion, because she's too far along in her pregnancy -- that's exactly why Josh held her hostage for so long, because he wanted her to be far enough along in her pregnancy to not be allowed to get an abortion.

Teri has Josh arrested, and Josh is scheduled to be placed on trial. Josh gets Deidre Stiles (Charlotte Rampling), who is against abortion, to be his defense attorney. Sergeant Rutherford (David Keith) is the detective who is working the case. Josh is free on $25,000 bail posted by the national chapter of the Right To Life (RTL) movement. Stiles and Josh obtain a court order that says that Teri cannot leave Utah to get an abortion out-of-state. When Teri does try to leave Utah to go to Mexico for an abortion, Stiles shows up at the Salt Lake City airport, and has Rutherford arrest Teri for violating the court order, even though Rutherford is reluctant to arrest Teri.

Devereux (Tom Wright), the district attorney, later assures Josh and Stiles that Teri is under surveillance to prevent her from violating the court order again. Josh is aware that if he's acquitted, he can try to adopt the baby after it's born, because it looks like Teri still doesn't want the baby, because she wants Josh out of her life. During the trial, Josh has Stiles cross examine Teri in a way that makes Teri -- in the eyes of the public -- look like a monster who doesn't want her baby. Stiles, very much to Josh's liking, makes Josh look like a man who, by holding Teri hostage for two months, was trying to do the right thing to make sure his baby will be born. People who are against abortion start cheering when Josh gets acquitted.

When the verdict is read, Devereux, Teri, and Rutherford are all highly disappointed. Teri gets up from the prosecution's table, and quietly tells Devereux that she's going into labor. Teri is taken to the hospital, where she gives birth to a boy named Douglas. Later, a young nurse (Alicia Morales) brings Douglas into Teri's room, but before Teri can hold Douglas, the hostile head nurse (Marjorie Hilton) has Douglas taken back to the nursery, because the head nurse says that Teri is giving Douglas up for adoption.

Cindy shows up to visit Teri, and realizing that Josh could adopt Douglas if she puts Douglas up for adoption, Teri rushes to the nursery, where she sees Josh looking at Douglas through the nursery's hallway window. Teri grabs a glass bottle full of water, smashes it over Josh's head, and starts hitting Josh. Teri is grabbed and dragged away by an intern (Timothy S. Shoemaker), but seconds later, she breaks loose from the intern and goes inside the nursery, where she finds Douglas and decides to keep him, because she realizes that she loves Douglas too much to give him up, and she doesn't want Douglas falling into the hands of a psychopath like Josh. The only reason why Teri ever wanted an abortion was to get Josh out of her life.

Teri, Douglas, and their cat, Roman, move into a new apartment, and Josh, who has moved into a building across the street, continues to terrorize Teri. Teri hires a nanny named Anna (Joyce Cohen). One day, while Teri is at work with Cindy, Josh comes over and visits Douglas, and convinces Anna that Teri is an unfit mother who never wanted Douglas. After work, at the police station, Rutherford tells Teri that he believes that Josh killed Sam Logan and the scarred woman. By the time Teri gets home, Josh is not there. Teri tries to feed Douglas, using a bottle, but Douglas wisely refuses the bottle. Teri turns around and sees Roman, who is dead.

Anna enters the room, and accuses Teri of poisoning Roman. Teri realizes that Josh was in the apartment, and it was Josh who killed Roman so he could frame Teri for testing poison out on Roman with the intent to give the poison to Douglas afterward, so Douglas could be taken away from Teri and given to Josh. Teri tries to leave the apartment after Anna calls the police, but Anna grabs Teri. Teri hits Anna twice, and then leaves. By that time, daytime is turning into night time.

Teri heads to a payphone, where she calls Cindy, who is at the parenthood center. Cindy tells Teri to come to the parenthood center. First, Teri has Rutherford's landlady (Janice Knickrehm) do her a favor. When Teri gets to the parenthood center a few minutes later, she goes up to the 4th floor, and sees Cindy tied down to a hospital bed, with a tray of surgical instruments at her side, and Josh threatens to use the instruments to torture Cindy, unless Teri gives Douglas to him. Instead, Teri throws Douglas out the window...or so Josh thinks.

Josh dives through the window, and grabs Douglas, but it turns out that Teri had actually thrown a plastic doll out the window. Teri left the real Douglas with Rutherford's landlady, who, at Teri's request, put Douglas under Rutherford's protection, and Josh is now hanging onto the windowsill with one hand. When Josh tries to climb back in, his arm comes down on a piece of glass that goes through his arm. Josh is still holding onto the windowsill -- but Teri hits Josh repeatedly, causing Josh to lose his grip on the window sill, and Josh is killed when he falls to the ground below.

Now everyone knows that Teri was telling the truth about Josh at the trial. Teri is finally free from Josh, Douglas is safe, and Rutherford is free to pursue a romance with Teri.