Edgar Allan Poe wrote a Gothic short story called "The Tell-Tale Heart," about the loud beats of a guilty heart that reveal the truth about the villain. It turns out that a small heart that is part of a bracelet is the tell-tale piece of evidence in this spine-tingling mystery.
Grant and Lori Malick are a lovely couple who have just moved into a new neighborhood outside of San Diego. Their marriage has been upended due to the loss of a little baby, five-month-old Kaleb. As an extremely persuasive attorney, Grant convinces Lori to participate in a neighborhood swap club in which the participants draw lots, then make a bee-line for the bedrooms. The group is known as "The Circle of Trust," one of the greatest misnomers ever to appear in a Lifetime film.
Lori has reluctantly agreed to join the swinger's club because she is desperate to save her marriage. But she formulates three essential guidelines, to which her husband agrees: (1) each partner must think about the other during the "ritual"; (2) the choice of any swap-mate may be vetoed by the other partner; (3) participation in the swinger's club must end if either one of the partners wants to call it off.
Of course, this "experiment" in The Circle of Trust is an unmitigated disaster. Grant cannot keep his agreement and continues to see Giselle after he and Lori have decided to no longer participate in the secret society. For her part, Lori no longer has an interest in Noah, but he immediately begins to stalk her and to issue a blackmail threat.
When Noah is murdered, the film turns into a whodunnit with Grant arrested for the crime. It is at that point that the relationship of Lori and her sister Kat takes center stage. The bonding of the two sisters helps to sustain Lori through her ordeal and ultimately reveal the truth about who killed Noah.
In multiple scenes, Lori is carrying one of her husband's golf clubs (a seven-iron?) around her new home in suburbia, as she genuinely fears for her life. The tiny heart that was left behind at the crime scene will reveal the secret of who stabbed Noah. But the reason the crime is solved is due to the love of one sister for the other. In the end, it is the emotional ties of the sisterhood that triumph over adversity in the fallout from the nefarious suburban swingers' club.
Grant and Lori Malick are a lovely couple who have just moved into a new neighborhood outside of San Diego. Their marriage has been upended due to the loss of a little baby, five-month-old Kaleb. As an extremely persuasive attorney, Grant convinces Lori to participate in a neighborhood swap club in which the participants draw lots, then make a bee-line for the bedrooms. The group is known as "The Circle of Trust," one of the greatest misnomers ever to appear in a Lifetime film.
Lori has reluctantly agreed to join the swinger's club because she is desperate to save her marriage. But she formulates three essential guidelines, to which her husband agrees: (1) each partner must think about the other during the "ritual"; (2) the choice of any swap-mate may be vetoed by the other partner; (3) participation in the swinger's club must end if either one of the partners wants to call it off.
Of course, this "experiment" in The Circle of Trust is an unmitigated disaster. Grant cannot keep his agreement and continues to see Giselle after he and Lori have decided to no longer participate in the secret society. For her part, Lori no longer has an interest in Noah, but he immediately begins to stalk her and to issue a blackmail threat.
When Noah is murdered, the film turns into a whodunnit with Grant arrested for the crime. It is at that point that the relationship of Lori and her sister Kat takes center stage. The bonding of the two sisters helps to sustain Lori through her ordeal and ultimately reveal the truth about who killed Noah.
In multiple scenes, Lori is carrying one of her husband's golf clubs (a seven-iron?) around her new home in suburbia, as she genuinely fears for her life. The tiny heart that was left behind at the crime scene will reveal the secret of who stabbed Noah. But the reason the crime is solved is due to the love of one sister for the other. In the end, it is the emotional ties of the sisterhood that triumph over adversity in the fallout from the nefarious suburban swingers' club.