Bess Grady is a hardworking photojournalist on an easy assignment. But what awaits her in a small-town paradise is unimaginable. She and her sister Emily have stumbled into something in Tenajo, and suddenly Emily disappears. It turns out that Tenajo is a testing ground for something twisted and grotesque, and Bess's only hope of saving herself and her sister is to trust a man whose motives are suspect, whose alliances are unclear and who leaves bodies in his wake...