Arden, a middle-aged woman who is miserable in her circumscribed life caring for her domineering mother, finds the body of a young girl, Krista, dumped in her property in the rural area in Los Angeles. Somehow, this discovery enables her to change the course of her life. Leah, the sister of a missing girl, convinces herself that the body is that of her sister, and becomes liberated until she discovers that it's not her. Ruth, who is unhappily married to Carl, finds evidence that could link him to Krista's murder. Melora, Krista's mother, visits the last place her daughter lived before she died and makes her own discoveries. Dead Girl is a quintet of stories about seemingly unrelated people whose lives converge around Krista's murder.
