The trial of parents accused of molestation plants the seeds for what becomes an alleged underground child sex ring called "The Circle" in Wenatchee, Washington.
Pastor Roby Roberson is among the first people to recognise innocents are being railroaded, but after he sets out to fight on their behalf, he and his wife are arrested and their only child goes on the run to avoid the law.
"The Serpent" eyes the detective behind the investigation, whose troubled 9-year-old foster daughter becomes the impetus for wild accusations that unfold.
A family who attends Roby's church are arrested and coerced in an effort to implicate their pastor, but they refuse to cooperate and mortgage everything they have to pay for outside counsel who obliterates the prosecution's case.
The emancipators arrive just in time in the form of outside media and attract the attention of the Innocence Project; the accused are finally released one by one over a period of time and attempt to salvage their families and lives.
