When Lauren Schroeder's husband, Mark, runs off with all their money and abducts their 4-year-old son, Nathan, she tracks them down to a religious retreat in the mountains of California. There she finds Mark has become a member of the Universal Englightened Alliance and has fallen under the power of the movement's beautiful, charismatic leader, Hester Thorne. As Lauren quickly discovers, Hester hides a past shrouded mystery. Her husband sits silent in a mental hospital. Medical science can't account for why her son was born hideously deformed. And no one can explain Hester's amazing occult powers. Now, as thousands of faithful followers gather to hear Hester channel a centuries-old spirit, Lauren searches for a way inside the compound. But it may already be too late, for her son has been put in the hands of an ancient cult that uses children in its dark, murderous rites.