Bento, his wife Janaina and their daughter Aurea flee Brazil and the drug bosses he worked for and flew to the United States in hopes of leaving a life of crime and starting fresh.
Aurea was confused about leaving but was very happy in Cincinnati where life took on a happy and carefree tone. She liked going to school, to the library and on weekends going to the Riverfront Park.
Everything seemed to be going right until the day when in the dark early morning she was taken by her parents and left on the porch of a home near the top of Hyde Park.
She knew that her parents were running from something when they both said that they loved her and left her with all her possessions and an envelope to be given to the person who would find her in the morning.
That person was a lady named Alex. She was taken in, fed and then introduced to Mary who would take her to school and watch her afterwards. At school she felt that her teachers were still nice to her, but they were treating her differently.
Alex starts an investigation into the missing parents and learns of the Brazilian drug connection and figures that Bento had taken some drug money to get to the US and that drug ring had sent someone to collect.
After two weeks she knew she had lost her parents and now she was afraid to be turned over to the Child Welfare System.
Alex learns who the drug money collection person is and figures out how to reach into Brazil to get him arrested for murder. Once she had the Aurea's parents bodies she decides that best way is to go to Brazil make the arrest and afterwards get the grandmother's signature on the adoption paper work.
Alex and Matt, who had taken her in let her know that they would like to adopt her.
She then realizes that she has a grandmother in Brazil who never really liked her, and she worries that she will be sent back to her.
Alex shows her Brazilian and American adoption papers and lets her know that she is loved and wanted.