When Jack and Pete Lowell find a wounded, bloody stranger on a country road near the town of Elkwood, they quickly realize that they may have made a fatal mistake. The girl's name is Claire, and she was able to escape from the Merrill family, sophisticated cannibal killers, and escaped captivity in which all her friends died. Neither Claire nor her rescuers yet know that their nightmare has only just begun. An unexpected escape will change Elkwood's life forever and will set off an irreversible chain reaction of revenge and hatred, and the Merrills, fearing exposure, will go to extreme measures, because even real monsters are defenseless against the fear of death.