"Prisoners" tells the story of two families, the Dovers and the Birch family. The story begins when two young girls, Annie Dover (Jaeden Martell) and Jill Birch (Kyla Deaver), go missing during a Thanksgiving dinner. The girls' parents, Paul Dover (Hugh Jackman) and Karen Birch (Maria Bello), are frantic and report their daughters' disappearance to the police. As the investigation unfolds, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) becomes obsessed with finding the girls.