Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) is a suburban mom and schoolteacher with a seemingly normal life in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. However, she had been found badly injured and amnesiatic several years previously, and has no memory of her past. When she's attacked by an escaped convict, Samantha dispatches her attacker with lethal self-defense skills she wasn't aware she possessed. She hires wisecracking private investigator Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson) to help her find the truth about her past.