The Couple Next Door Summary

Anne and Marco decide to go to their neighbors' party and leave their baby child, Cora, at home, alone, after her babysitter canceled. They decided they will check on her every half an hour. They check as planned, and when they finally return home, they find the front door open and their baby kidnapped. Detective Rasbach gets the case and at first, suspects the parents. He asks a lot of personal questions and tries to get any clue he can. Some clues are gathered: a hybrid car was driving slowly, headlights off, towards the Contis' backyard at 12:35 am, the motion detector is not working, and Anne is on medication from postpartum depression.

Rasbach suspects the parents even more, especially that he hasn't found any footprints other than Marco's and Anne's in the house. As they look for further clues, it looks like they aren't going anywhere, even when they offered money to anyone who has information. They decide to publicize it and offer three million dollars to the kidnappers if they bring Cora.

After a couple of days, they receive a letter with Cora's onesie asking for a five million dollar ransom. Anne's parents offer the money to Anne, and Marco decides to go alone without letting the police know. When he arrives, he is hit on the back of his head and goes unconscious. He wakes up to find his money stolen and his baby not back. Marco feels guilty that he has just lost five million dollars and he hasn't returned his baby. Anne is devastated and is slowly going through a mental breakdown. She is constantly blaming herself, Marco, and Cynthia, and especially blames herself. They decide to tell Rasbach about everything. Although he feels annoyed, he understands that the family might have been threatened.

It is later known in Marco's point of view in the story that he was the kidnapper, or he was a part of it, to get money from Anne's parents to revive his business. He met an accomplice called Bruce Neeland in a bar one night. He trusted him and told him his problems, and one day Bruce suggested this whole kidnapping story after Richard denied helping Marco. Marco kept his business issues away from Anne the whole time. Their plan was to give Cora to Bruce at midnight when they were at the party and it was Marco's turn to check on Cora. He would come from the garage and Marco would disable the motion detector, enable it again, and open the front door slightly to mislead the officers. Unfortunately, Marco forgot to disable the detector, which turned things around.

Later, while Marco was checking the newspaper, he finds Bruce, who is actually called Derek, murdered brutally in his cabin. Marco freezes but then decides to identify him as someone he has seen before somewhere to have the police check his story. Meanwhile, Anne discovers a secret phone Marco owns and hides in the AC, and she hypothesizes that he has it to have an affair with Cynthia. Also, meanwhile, Cynthia has a record on her backyard camera of Marco kidnapping his daughter at 12:35 am and decides to blackmail Marco.

Now, Marco is in a major dilemma and he doesn't know what to do. While he was at work, Anne decides to go to Cynthia and confront her about their alleged affairs. Cynthia then shows her the video, and Anne runs back home. When Marco gets back, he finds Anne with a knife, scared to death from her own husband. She now knows what he is capable of. She now knows that her husband is a criminal. Marco then admits everything to Anne. She calms down and understands that Marco is a victim himself of a bigger act of stealing money. He tells her about her father's call to him and that he claims that the kidnappers have contacted him to ask for more money. Marco tells Anne about his suspicions on her father. She tells Marco that she recognized Derek as a friend of her father; this even makes more sense to Marco.

Anne stays at her parents' house for a couple of days and one day, she wakes up to find her father carrying a gym bag and running to the woods. She follows him and when she arrives, he has Cora. The police suddenly come and congratulate the couple for the return of their baby. And then, they Richard for murder of Derek and for being the mastermind behind the whole kidnapping. He used Marco and his deep financial issue as a bait for him to kidnap his own daughter.

At night, Anne goes to Cynthia and tells her that blackmailing Marco is useless now, and she knows that her father and Cynthia have been having a secret affair, so obviously Cynthia was a part of this. Cynthia puts Anne to her nerves, and suddenly, Anne goes to her state of unknown reality, and she kills Cynthia without being aware of it. When Marco asks her what happened, she tells him that she doesn't remember anything.