As a small-town social worker investigates a commune headed by a spiritual leader calling himself Moses, she discovers a dead child, sadistic rituals, and ruthless mental and physical abuse.
Two young orphans in the Tirolian Mountains come under siege by a vicious band of hunters. Frightened of being separated by child services following the death of their mother, a self-sufficient 16-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother - who hasn't spoken a word since seeing his father killed by the mayor - strive to live off the land in peace. Their innocence is shattered, however, when a group of hunters led by the mayor's son brutalizes and rapes the free-spirited girl. Later, when a well-meaning social services worker arrives too late to protect the terrorized siblings, the girl and her brother prepare to take a stand against their ruthless attackers.
For her entire life, the cult she was born into has been all that teenage Selah has known. Along with a band of similarly cloistered young women she lives seemingly unstuck in time, cut off from modern society in a remote forest commune presided over by a man called Shepherd, a controlling, messiah-like figure with a frightening dark side. But when her insular world is rocked by a series of nightmarish visions and disturbing revelations, Selah begins to question everything about her existence—including her allegiance to the increasingly dangerous Shepherd.
After the suicide of her beloved father, the biologist Daniella Logan visits her catatonic mother in a mental institution to tell the tragic event and her mother calls her "Josephine". Daniella goes to the cemetery and finds that her father's grave had been opened and his corpse was profaned. She decides to investigate, and receives a message of a diabetic priest, Father Elias, who tells her about an ancient fanatic religious sect of followers of Abraham that kills the first child. Later, she meets a weird man, Toby Harris, who claims to be his legitimate father. Daniella continues seeking the truth about her origins and discloses very dark secrets about her family and friends.
Inspired by actual events. When Melissa Cooper's body is found hanging from a swing set, the 27-year-old's death is initially ruled a suicide. But two weeks later a young man, Adam, comes forward claiming he murdered Melissa on the orders of her husband, Daniel Cooper.
After the death of his girlfriend, Travis, a thirty-something psychiatrist, struggles to keep it together. On the brink of a nervous breakdown he stumbles across a strange church run by a charismatic leader, Pastor Jay. In search of answers Travis is led deeper and deeper into the underworld of religious fanaticism, home to a Doomsday cult and a teenage girl named Grace.