It is 1998. Almost a decade has passed since Travis Lembeau's life was nearly destroyed by alcoholic pitching prodigy Nicholas "Pooch" Shepherd. Today, both men have gotten on with their lives. Travis is married and working at the local newspaper, and Nick Shepherd, no longer calling himself Pooch, is in recovery, ten years sober, who teaches baseball to at-risk kids. It would seem that the terrible days of Pooch are long gone ... but sometimes, the past is never where you think you left it. Through a quantum anomaly, the demon that Nick used to be-the vicious Pooch circa 1989-claws its way across the portals of time to stalk Travis and harass his family. At first Travis fears that Nick has fallen off the wagon and returned to his violent ways. But Nick is still very much sober and has an even greater reason for concern: If this thing really is Pooch-if Pooch has somehow come out of the past to torment the present-then every atrocity Pooch commits will leave a trail leading back to Nick. Working together and apart, and enlisting the aid of a mysterious time-traveling transient, Travis and Nick set out to send Pooch back to where he came from ... before Pooch's madness destroys everything they love.