Jason Dessen enjoys a warm Thursday family night with his wife, Daniela, and son, Charlie, reflecting on paths not taken while cooking dinner. He briefly visits his former roommate, the now-famous neuroscientist Ryan Holder, whose backhanded praise stings. Leaving the bar, Jason nearly gets hit by a cab, buys ice cream, and takes a solitary route home to clear his head.

Under the El, a masked man with a gun confronts Jason, forces him into a Lincoln Navigator, and has him follow a preprogrammed GPS route. The man has tracked Jason, knows his family and habits, and intercepts Jason’s attempt to text for help. He taunts Jason about Daniela, reveals detailed knowledge of Jason’s life, and directs him to a desolate industrial area near Lake Michigan.

At a derelict power facility, the captor escalates control: he strikes Jason, demands he strip, and drags him inside through pitch-dark corridors. Jason, terrified and freezing, pleads and briefly attempts to fight during a stairwell descent but fails. The captor injects Jason with unknown drugs, then leads him to the generator floor where a duffel holds perfectly fitting clothes for Jason, implying extensive preparation.

Sitting across from Jason, the captor insists he did not bring Jason to kill him and begins an intimate interrogation about happiness, ambition, and the life Jason chose over his once-promising quantum research. Under the drug’s influence, Jason admits he sacrificed scientific greatness for family when Charlie was born and does not regret choosing Daniela and fatherhood.

As moonlight floods the vast room and strange, swirling visual phenomena appear in Jason’s fading vision, the captor apologizes, says Jason can “make it yours,” and injects himself with the same substance from a shining ampoule. Jason loses consciousness as the captor refuses to explain further, promising unbelievable developments to come.