剧情：波士顿的多尔切斯特是一个无情的街区。这是一个由冷漠和强大所定义的地方，在这里没有弱者的生存空间，而且即便你足够强大和冷漠，也同样还需要上天眷顾的好运才能在此处立足。冰冷的街道上到处散落着破碎的家庭，破碎的心，破碎的梦想。 四岁的小女孩阿曼达·麦科克雷蒂就在这个街区失踪。警方展开了全面的调查却查不到任何的蛛丝马迹。绝望中，阿曼达的姨妈和伯父找到了私家侦探 帕特里克·肯奇（卡西·阿弗莱克饰演）和安吉·真纳罗（米歇尔·莫娜汉饰演）。帕特里克和安吉对多尔切斯特街区十分熟悉，他们也知道阿曼达有一个瘾君子母亲。二人谨慎的接手了这个案子。随着调查的深入，他们发现自己手头的线索越来越深的把他们带入了多尔切斯特毒品交易、儿童诱拐等犯罪网络的核心，但仍旧没有找到关于失踪小女孩的任何音讯。此时，有关阿曼达失踪的消息登上了各大报纸的热门版面，一时间这个事件被媒体炒得沸沸扬扬。在镁光灯的闪烁下， 帕特里克和安吉开始了与警探莱米·布莱桑特（艾德·哈里斯饰演）和警长杰克·多乐（摩根·弗里曼饰演）联手合作。警方的联合调查果然让此案件进展加速不少，很快他们就追查到了小女孩的下落，但随后水落石出后的真相却是以小女孩阿曼达的死为结尾 。 When a young girl, Amanda McCready, goes missing in Boston, the case attracts widespread media attention. Private investigator Patrick Kenzie (played by Casey Affleck) and his partner and girlfriend Angie Gennaro (played by Michelle Monaghan) are hired by the child's Aunt Beatrice to find her. Kenzie and Angie discover Amanda's mother Helene and her boyfriend "Skinny Ray" had recently stolen money from a local drug lord. After Ray is murdered, Patrick and Angie join the police detectives investigating the case, Nick Poole and Remy Bressant, to arrange a trade of the money for Amanda. Police Captain Doyle shows Kenzie a telephone transcript of the drug lord setting up an exchange for Amanda. The exchange at a nearby quarry in Quincy is botched and Amanda is believed to have drowned. Captain Doyle, whose own daughter was also killed years before, takes responsibility and goes into early retirement. Two months later, a seven-year-old boy is abducted in Everett and Kenzie receives information that the boy was taken by a known child molester. After entering the house and finding evidence of the abducted boy, Kenzie returns later with Nick and Remy to rescue him. They are seen by the residents and Nick is shot. Kenzie enters the house and finds one of the residents dead. After being shot at, Kenzie retreats into the child molester's room. He finds the child molester in the room and the boy's dead body in the bathroom, and kills the child molester. Nick later dies in a hospital. Trying to alleviate Kenzie's guilt over the murder, Remy confides in Kenzie that he once planted evidence on someone. During the story, Remy inadvertently reveals that he knew "Skinny Ray" prior to Amanda's abduction. The fact that Remy lied during the investigation puzzles Kenzie, who speaks to a police officer after Nick's funeral. The police officer tells Kenzie that Remy had been asking about the drug lord's stolen money before the drug lord knew it was missing. Kenzie questions Amanda's Uncle Lionel and pieces together that Lionel and Remy conspired in a false kidnapping in order to take the money for themselves and to save Amanda from her mother's poor parenting. At that point, Remy enters the bar and stages a robbery while wearing a latex mask and holding a shotgun. He points the shotgun at Lionel's head, but the bartender shoots Remy twice in the back. Remy flees and is pursued by Kenzie to the rooftop of a nearby building, where he dies. Kenzie is later questioned about Remy's death, and discovers that the transcript that led to the botched exchange for Amanda was a forgery. Kenzie drives with Angie to Captain Doyle's home looking for answers. He discovers Amanda is alive and living very happily with Doyle and his wife. A flashback reveals Amanda's death was staged, and that Doyle was a part of the phony kidnapping all along. Kenzie threatens to call the authorities, but Doyle attempts to convince him that Amanda is better off living with them than with her drug-addicted, careless mother. Kenzie departs to discuss the choice with Angie, who says she will leave him if he calls the police. The police arrive and Doyle is arrested. Amanda is reunited with her mother, and Kenzie and Angie break up. Kenzie later visits Amanda and Helene as Helene is about to leave on a date. She has no babysitter and just plans on having a neighbor check on Amanda, so Kenzie volunteers to watch Amanda. The film ends with Kenzie and Amanda watching television.