LAPD officer Joe Baylor is working the night shift at a 911 call center, which is overwhelmed with calls relating to a large wildfire in the Hollywood Hills. Joe is awaiting trial for an unspecified incident that occurred on shift eight months ago, and expects to return to active duty following a court hearing the following day. Joe fields emergency calls while being hounded by an LA Times reporter asking for a statement about tomorrow’s trial.
Joe receives a call from a young woman named Emily Lighton who cannot talk freely, but Joe deduces that she has been kidnapped and is in the car with her abductor. He learns that they are in a white van on the freeway, but the abductor catches on and Emily hangs up before she can provide any further info. Joe relays the information to CHP, but they are unable to locate the van with such little info.
Joe calls Emily’s home phone number and speaks to her young daughter, Abby, who tells him that Emily was taken by her ex-husband Henry Fisher. He manages to get Henry’s phone number from Abby, and uses it to get the license plate number of the van. He calls CHP to send a patrol car to check on Abby and her baby brother Oliver, and also requests a search of Henry’s apartment, but the latter request is denied due to lack of a warrant.
Joe calls his ex-partner Rick, who is off-duty, and asks him to check on Henry’s house. Rick is supposed to provide witness testimony at Joe’s trial tomorrow, and expresses worry that it won’t go their way. Rick breaks into Henry’s apartment and finds piles of letters and documents; Joe asks him to start searching for any info that can help them deduce where Henry is going. Joe also calls his estranged wife and asks to speak to their daughter, but she is asleep and his wife asks him to stop calling.
Joe receives another call from Abby, and instructs her to answer the door for two LAPD officers performing a wellness check. The officers discover that Abby is covered in blood and her brother Oliver – who she said was “sleeping” – is gravely injured. Joe then calls Emily back and convinces her to pull the handbrake, but it fails to crash the van. He later talks to her in the back of the van, and Emily asks how Oliver is; she reveals that she believed Oliver had “snakes in his stomach” and she “took them out”. Henry stops the car and tries to remove Emily from the back, but she hits him with a brick and runs away.
Rick then calls Joe back and says he found documents in Henry’s place relating to a psychiatric facility in San Bernadino, where Emily used to be a patient. Joe calls Henry who explains that he was taking Emily back the facility; she has been off her meds for weeks because they could not afford them. Joe asks why he didn’t call the police when Emily hurt Oliver; Henry explains he doesn’t trust the system anymore because no one was willing to help them before. Joe asks where Emily ran off to, but Henry doesn’t know.
Emily calls Joe back from an overpass and implies that she is preparing to jump to her death, having realized what she did. Joe directs CHP to her location as he attempts to talk her down from the ledge. In an effort to distract her, Joe reveals that he killed a man while on active duty; when Emily asks why, he says he doesn’t know. She asks if it was “snakes”, and he agrees. Joe tells Emily that her family still loves her; Emily says she is “gonna go be with Oliver” and hangs up. Joe thinks she’s jumped to her death, but CHP calls and says they got her to come down safely. He also learns that Oliver is alive and in stable condition at the hospital.
Joe calls Rick back and asks him to tell the truth on the witness stand, knowing that he will be sent to prison as a result. Joe also calls the LA Times and informs the reporter that he intends to plead guilty to manslaughter at his upcoming trial.
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