.Summer school, summer jobs, girls, good friends. Sounds pretty normal for a kid in a small town in north central Missouri. All 17-year-old Mark Stone wants is to get a passing grade in his Shakespeare class, score some time with Deborah, and have fun with his best friends, Carl and Herb. But he has begun hearing voices, seeing people who aren't there, sensing something isn't quite right. Is it his imagination? Is it the pot he's been smoking just to be sociable? Or is it something more? Why isn't his friend Hilda as disturbed as he is? And why can't he get the lovely Deborah to just look at him? Now Herb seems to be out of control with drugs, Deborah seems to have a new love, and Mark hasn't the first clue how to fix any of it. Hilda is a good listener but she's old. What does she know about any of this? And now she wants him to read the Bible. What's up with that? Hilda Barbour has watched a generation of kids in Hemlock, MO, grow up, go off to college or the military, or simply stay right here. Mark has always been special. He reminds her of her brother, killed during World War II, but he also brings out her maternal instinct, childless as she is. Now she, too, is concerned about some of the phenomena occurring around Hemlock, though her Christian convictions sustain her and she knows the Lord is in control. But how to impart this to Mark? There's more at work here than just the world and the flesh, and she must call upon every ounce of faith she possesses, as things spin out of control, and two lives-and two souls-literally hang in the balance.