Divorced crisis negotiator police lieutenant Phoebe MacNamara (de Ravin) struggles with the pressures of her job, raising her young daughter Carly, facing mounting bills, and taking care of her agoraphobic mother Essie (Shepard).
While talking down a distraught armed suicidal man threatening to jump from a rooftop, Phoebe meets his ex-boss, Duncan Swift (Sergei), who can't resist her take-charge attitude, not to mention her physical attractiveness. He attempts to earn her affections repeatedly, and though she tries to resist his charms, Phoebe soon realizes no amount of negotiation will keep Duncan at arm's length. It's also not so bad when she finds out he won $138 million in a state lottery, and is a successful investor.
After being brutally attacked and handcuffed by an unknown assailant in the staircase of her precinct, Phoebe receives a series of mysterious and threatening messages. She soon learns she is the target of a psychopathic killer, an ex-SWAT cop, out to destroy her after the death of his fiancee in a bank robbery. He believes that her death is Phoebe's fault, as she was the negotiator working the incident.
