But the deception exists in relation to a disappearance that has never been resolved, and the unresolved disappearance is the foundation on which everything else rests.

If Nicholas ran away, the Bourdin story is a remarkable crime that exploited an ordinary, if tragic, missing persons case.

If Nicholas was harmed by someone — whether a stranger or someone known to him — the Bourdin story is a remarkable crime that may have complicated or even obstructed the investigation into that harm.

If Bourdin’s specific allegations about Jason have any truth to them, the story becomes something even darker: a deception that was simultaneously an attempt to insert himself into a family and an accusation about a crime that the family may have been invested in concealing.

The documentary places these possibilities in front of the viewer without resolving them.