Ten-year-old Johnny Olmstead’s only hopes of escaping a hideous monster are his mother who is on the brink of a mental breakdown, his father who died five years ago, and a stranger in his attic who doesn’t know who he is.

You are not afraid of wolves. Friend, you are afraid of the woods.

You are not afraid of wolves. Friend, you are afraid of the woods.

A man, dealing with voices in his head, murders his entire family. Years later, people visit his home.

In the aftermath of a small-town massacre, Venus McKenzie and her friends each try to deal with the fallout in their own way, not knowing that they are being pulled in the same direction: towards the pulpit of the Church of the Sandmen.