The Stolen Girl is a psychological thriller that follows the harrowing story of a couple, Fred and Elisa, whose 9-year-old daughter, Lucia, is kidnapped during a sleepover with her new best friend.
The five-part series, which is based on the bestselling novel Playdate by Alex Dahl, then sees horror unfold for Fred and Elisa as secrets and lies are revealed in the days that follow Lucia's disappearance.
The twists and turns keep coming as the police try and work out how Lucia was taken, and why...
Here is everything that happens in The Stolen Girl episode 1...
The first episode opens with a car driving along a country road and it cuts to the boot, where a young girl, Lucia, is locked inside. When the boot opens she asks 'Who are you?'.
The episode then cuts to a woman, Elisa Blix, at work as cabin crew on a private jet. She races off as soon as the plane lands, as she is late for the school run. When she arrives at the school, she is late, and the teacher isn't impressed that she has had to wait with Lucia, Elisa's daughter.
The teacher is short with Elisa, but another mum, Rebecca, backs her up, and they become instant friends. She says they are new and her daughter, Josie, has befriended Lucia since she arrived. They invite Lucia for a playdate, and Elisa isn't sure as she has only just met this woman; however, the girls beg and Rebecca assures her it is no trouble, so Elisa agrees to two hours and then she will come and collect her.
At home, Elisa is trying to get her son, George, to eat some dinner when her husband, Fred, arrives home from work where he is a criminal lawyer. Elisa's phone rings and it is Lucia calling from Rebecca's phone, asking if she can sleep over. Elisa isn't sure as she has never had a sleepover before, but soon, Rebecca is on the phone reassuring her that Lucia will be fine and invites Elisa over to bring Lucia's overnight stuff and see what she thinks when she's here.
Once she arrives, Elisa is taken aback by Rebecca's amazing house and finds out that she used to be a make up artist before becoming a mum, and her husband, Jack, works for a bank. The women are making small talk as the girls come in dressed in matching fairy costumes. Elisa goes to take a photo of them, but Rebecca freaks out, telling her she doesn't like people taking pictures of her daughter without her permission, and Elisa is apologetic. She says that Lucia clearly wants to stay, so she leaves her overnight bag and heads off, saying bye to her daughter, who is having too much fun to reply.
The following morning, Elisa is at work on the private jet when she calls Fred and asks if he has spoken to Rebecca. He says she called earlier to say she was taking the girls swimming and that she would drop Lucia home by 12.
After her flight, Elisa calls Fred and asks if she can speak to Lucia, but he says she isn't back yet and they must have stopped for lunch or something. She points out it is already 2.30 pm and he panics, not realising how late it has got. He asks whether Lucia called the night before from Rebecca's phone, and Elisa says she did - but he thinks that is odd because when Rebecca called that morning, it was from a withheld number. When Elisa tries to call Rebecca, the number isn't working, and once she lands she is shocked to see Fred at the airport. He is worried because he's been calling the number on the fridge, and no one is picking up.
The pair head straight to Rebecca's house, but a cleaner answers and when they say they are looking for Rebecca, she tells them no one lives there and it is a holiday let. Elisa and Fred are stunned as the reality sets in that Lucia has been kidnapped and they need to call the police.
Elisa is living every parents' worst nightmare as the police arrive at the house and are taken to the station to make their statements. The whole thing is too much for Elisa, who struggles with the enormity of what is happening, and Fred holds her as she breaks down, sobbing.
The police hold a press conference and journalist Selma Desai arrives just as it is starting. DI Shona Sinclair leads the press conference and explains to the press that Rebecca isn't the suspect's real name and that she provided an alias to the school. DI Sinclair tells the press they won't be taking questions and Elisa makes a statement pleading with Rebecca to let her daughter come home. At the end of the press conference, Fred and Elisa file out with the police, but Selma catches her and asks, 'Why you, why Lucia?' as the police usher Elisa away.
Sinclair tells Fred and Elisa to go home and get some rest, reassuring them that DC Daniel Coolidge will look after them should they have questions. Once home, Fred calls his mum and asks if she can hold on to George a little longer, and they worry that Coolidge is watching them and seeing if they could be responsible for Lucia's disappearance. As they are hugging, Fred sees the reporter from the press conference, Selma, in their garden, and Coolidge goes out and tells her to leave.
At the rental house, the police find out the credit card used to rent the property was stolen and they discuss how Fred is a criminal lawyer so this could be organised crime, or as Lucia is a pretty white girl, she could have been stolen to order. The police have little evidence to go on as the rental has been thoroughly cleaned, but they have found Lucia's soft toy mouse that Elisa dropped over the night before with her daughter's overnight things.
Selma goes to see Miss Thompson, Lucia and Josie's teacher, and she is reluctant to talk, but reveals that Josie had only been at the school a short time after Rebecca requested an emergency transfer from her previous school.
The police go to see Elisa and Fred at home and show them the soft toy mouse they found at the rental house and they both sob at the sight of it. DI Sinclair says they are considering the possibility that Rebecca was hired for the job and wasn't actually Josie's real mother and that everything she told her might have been false. But Elisa says that Rebecca and Josie's relationship seemed very real.
DI Sinclair says they have to think if there is anyone who might have a grudge against them or want to hurt them - Fred says that he is defending a client who was coerced into laundering money for a criminal gang and now he is giving evidence against them. Sinclair tells them she will look into that and is also going to need their passwords to emails, social media and phones as they are going to be looking into that as well.
Fred isn't happy about his phone being checked and says he needs to speak to Elisa alone. He tells her that he has been talking to another woman, but nothing happened; however, Elisa is devastated and when they are talking to the police later she can barely look at him.
The police talk through his messages with someone called Sarah Banks and they started chatting months back after meeting at a mini golf place. DI Sinclair goes through all his conversations with Sarah, from flirty messages to facetime calls, asking what happened during those calls, however, he is evasive as Elisa is sitting right next to him. It turns out that Sarah was trying to meet up with Fred, but he ignored her request, which made Sarah angry. She then told him that he should enjoy his 'perfect life' while he can, and that was the last he heard from her, which was over a year ago.
They show him CCTV footage from the school of Rebecca, but she knew how to avoid the cameras and he can't tell if Sarah is Rebecca or not. DI Sinclair tells him to look harder as this is their best lead in the case so far. They tell the couple that Sarah's phone was an unregistered mobile and her Instagram was deleted months ago, but they are looking at other ways of tracing her.
Selma is at work and is annoyed that her boss changed her copy because she has focused on Elisa. He tells her that you can't focus on the mother in the first 24 hours of a child going missing but she is convinced that there is something not right about Elisa.
Fred's mother brings George back and tells them she is going to stay for a few nights to help out with him as they must be exhausted. They say it isn't necessary and that they want to be alone, and she reluctantly leaves.
After putting George to bed, Fred wants to talk about Sarah - but Elisa doesn't want to listen and as they argue she says she wishes that he didn't take cases that mean they have to have three locks on their front door, and she wishes that he hadn't had phone sex with a random woman he met - but Fred hits back that he would never have let Lucia stay with a random woman he barely knew, and Elisa is devastated that he is insinuating this is her fault.
At the end of the episode, we see the car driving along a sunny, coastal road and it returns to the scene from the beginning of the episode where Lucia is in the boot and when someone finally opens it, she asks 'who are you?'. Meanwhile, we see Rebecca watching Fred and Elisa's police appeal on a laptop as she keeps rewinding the part where Elisa begs her not to hurt her daughter.
The five-part thriller The Stolen Girl is available in the UK on Disney Plus as a box set now. In the US, Freeform will roll out episodes weekly at 10pm ET beginning 16 April 2025, and episodes will be available to stream the next day April 17 2025 on Hulu.
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