Hannah (Garner) is happily married to Owen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and stepmother to Bailey (Angourie Rice) who, to put it lightly, hates her stepmom. It’s hard enough dealing with a teenager, but a step-teenager unhappy about her dad’s marriage is another level of difficult.

All seems well with the family aside from Bailey’s refusal to get close to Hannah. Then, one day, everything changes. Owen goes missing when his company is found to have defrauded all their investors, with references to the Enron scandal. Hannah is completely in the dark, not knowing what happened or where her husband has gone. Is he gone for good or just until the situation is resolved?

Hannah receives a note from Owen asking her to take care of Bailey, and Bailey receives a note from Owen — along with a stash of cash. Just what in the world is going on? As the media descends on Hannah, as well as the FBI, she decides to take matters into her own hands and find answers.

“I think what what’s fascinating about the disappearance is that there’s so many misdirects even for Hannah that it unfolds slowly in a way because she doesn’t know if he’s gone with the other top brass from his company,” Garner told members of the media. “She doesn’t know why he’s disappeared, where he’s disappeared to, if it’s temporary. So her panic is all of a sudden — it lasts over time and builds over time.”

Garner, who has played many strong women in her career, acknowledged her draw to the character.

“I’m drawn to women who learn their own strength in spite of themselves, but I’m drawn to Laura Dave’s writing is really what this is all about. There were a million different reasons to be drawn to this project and the character is definitely one and who she learns that she can be is definitely part of that, as well. I mean, more interesting to me in this case was Hannah learning that she actually could be and was a mother. And that is what I got to do with Angourie — uncover that strength that Hannah absolutely did not know that she had. And that’s really where the fun was for me here,” Garner said.

As the story unfolds the relationship between Hannah and Bailey changes. Bailey always rejected Hannah’s attempts at closeness, but now, with both of them urgently working together to uncover what happened to Owen, they grow closer and learn they can trust and rely on each other. This is a sweet part of the storyline.

“I loved, I loved working with Jenn,” Rice said. “It was such a gift to come to work every morning and just to sit in the hair and makeup trailer and listen to music and sing along. And I really felt like we became partners on this project. It felt like — I felt so welcomed into this kind of story of two women.”

For Dave, who started writing the book in 2012, seeing it unfold on screen is a delight. The story is intriguing and addicting, as after each episode viewers will be caught up even more in the story of what happened to Owen. “The Last Thing He Told Me” premiered April 14 on Apple TV+.