There is something in the heart of Bannon, Vermont.
Summer 1979. School's out in Bannon, Vermont, and thirteen-year-old Sam Cadence plans to spend every day of it the same way - reading comics in a hidden tree fort with his best friend, Adam, far from the fathers who won't miss them and the bullies who will.
Then two strangers come to town, trudging through the swampy Lowlands at night, searching for something. A girl named Alessa walks out of the dark and into their lives. And a beautiful woman with too many names starts asking questions about Bannon.
And about Sam.
Because Sam has a secret. He can hear what people are thinking. And he has never known why.
The answer is waiting deep in the Lowlands, where the light doesn't scatter right and something has begun to glow. Sam is about to learn what his gift cost.
And who paid for it.