Writer Michelle McNamara, the author of the blog True Crime Diary, finds a new obsession in the "East Area Rapist" (EAR) -- who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s was, ultimately, responsible for 50 home-invasion rapes and 12 murders.

Michelle reflects on the 1984 murder of her childhood neighbor Kathy Lombardo, which she credits with planting the seed for her lifelong fascination with unsolved crimes.

The brutal predator moves south, where he commits yet more gruesome murders. Michelle struggles to inject her own story into her book.

After gaining access to a treasure trove of case files, Michelle struggles to balance the demands of her work with her family life.

As Michelle's loved ones mourn her sudden death, her work to unmask the Golden State Killer lives on. Paul Haynes and writer Billy Jensen work alongside Michelle's husband, Patton Oswalt, to finish her book.

Former police officer Joe DeAngelo is arrested, leaving Michelle's fellow citizen detectives to connect the dots. Chilling facts materialize that illuminate Michelle's prescience in her book's epilogue, "Letter to an Old Man."

Golden State Killer survivors and victims’ family members reconvene for Joseph DeAngelo’s sentencing hearing in August 2020.