Welcome to the Learning Chair ... It wasn't much of a classroom. Subterranean, for one thing. And devoid of the raucous clamor and gleeful giggles that permeated most schools. This classroom held only one student. She was tied to a chair. And the chair was bolted to the floor. *** Waitress Susan Merrick awakens in the hospital, the victim of a savage beating, to discover that her seven-year-old daughter, Abby, has vanished. Held captive, Abby is being taught "life lessons" on a "learning chair" and she quickly learns the penalty for not being an apt pupil. Lieutenant Carolyn Latham must piece together the connection between a murder in Banff, Alberta, the apparent accidental death of an Oregon college student many years earlier, and the disappearance of Abby Merrick, before a most devious villain strikes again.