At the beginning of the movie, the Father, Peter Ward resigns from his editor job in New York to relocate his wife and his two girls to a small town in New England. Few months after settling in, Elisabeth Ward and her two daughters were mistakenly murdered by a hit man hired to murder their neighbor’s wife. He went to Peter Ward ‘ s house instead and committed the crime. However, Peter Ward , the Father was blamed for the murders even though there was no evidence against him. He was then admitted to Greenhaven Psychiatric facility since he was not deemed competent to stand trial. Peter spent 5 years at the psychiatric ward and while at Greenhaven still could not believe he had committed the crime. So he decided to destroy his own name