When Brette Barry finds a bloody handprint on a Dead End sign outside the Pugh's farm, she's certain it's a harmless Halloween prank courtesy of her son Eric and his best friend Hank. But when she sends Eric over to clean it up, the handprint is gone...and Hank is missing.

Brette suspects the vindictive Pughs are somehow involved, but without evidence the local sheriff is skeptical of her claim. He's convinced the troubled teen has more likely run away from home again...but that doesn't mean he isn't suspicious of Sam Knight, Brette's suddenly attentive new neighbor.

Brette can't deniy her own doubts about the mysterious man-or her attraction to him. And her feelings grow even more conflicted, the truth murkier, when Hank reappears only to confide that they've been searching for the wrong person. Tracie Pugh is the one who's missing, and the last person to see her alive...was Sam.