Sylvia de Matteo, an American commercial photographer and single mother, is taken hostage by terrorists during a political assassination at Stazione Centrale, Milan's train station.
Moments later, a Paris-bound train with Sylvia's ten-year old daughter and fiance aboard departs the station without Sylvia.
Sylvia is seized at gunpoint, thrown into the back of a van, blindfolded, beaten, and driven to a warehouse where she is imprisoned in a cell.
When the terrorists discover Sylvia's father is a wealthy Wall Street investment banker, they demand a ransom for her safe release.