Hoping to leave behind troubled days in the Baltimore city police department, Nate Burns (Eddie Cibrian) journeys to Alaska, where he takes up a quiet life as a small-town sheriff and begins a romance with spirited bush pilot Meg Galligan (LeAnn Rimes). But when Meg’s father turns up dead, Burns finds himself thrust into the limelight of a dangerous murder investigation.

To remedy his financial problems, a travel agent has his eye on a frozen corpse, which just happens to be sought after by two hitmen.

In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club’s MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club’s owner, Zoe. Meanwhile Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives. Gradually, connections between the traumatic pasts of these characters are revealed.