Zöe Nielsen was just like any other ten year old walking to school, not knowing that her chance encounter with Thurman Hayes would lead to her abduction and imprisonment in a converted nuclear bunker beneath a remote Arizona ranch house, 4,000 miles away from her home. 

Back home, on an island off the coast of Newfoundland, the press coverage surrounding Zöe’s mother, Ingrid, is rapidly turning sour. Even the arrest of a man suspected of the abduction and Ingrid’s newly established relationship with Zöe’s father isn’t enough to stop the nightmare from which there is no waking.

Enslaved in her underground tomb, deprived of food and light and water, the girl Zöe once was steadily begins to disappear. She is only allowed to see and hear what Thurman allows. She lives in a world that is all about his needs and wants being met…

But over time Thurman will grow tired of the rapidly maturing Zöe. And when he decides it is time to get rid of her, Zöe must finally make her bid for freedom. 

Forgetting Zöe is a moving, epic tale of courage, survival, horror and loss, that explores how, under the conditions of siege, a bond of affection and intimacy can develop between captive and captor.