Early morning, some time ago, a long-term convict is released from an American penitentiary. With no one to meet him at the prison gates he immediately embarks upon a crime spree, ending with the mysterious abduction of young Martin Potter.... On the day his brother Martin was abducted, Joey Potter's life fell apart. As the mystery of Martin's disappearance remained unresolved, tragedy consumed his life. Until, one winter, two strange brothers moved into the house opposite Joey's in the small New England town in which he lived, and it seemed finally a solution might be at hand. Only: what sort of solution would it be? And how much deeper into the darkness would Joey have to go in order to regain the light?