In the small town of Wheatfield New York, trusted police offers suddenly become hardened criminals, soccer moms become grifters and prostitutes, beloved teachers transform into suicide bombers. All because of a machine Virgil Vanderhill created to reunite with the woman he has loved his entire life. In the days that follow, a local stoner, Jimmy McCracken, plagued since childhood with the ability to communicate with the dead, is attacked by a man believed to be long dead. Mary McGuernsey, a 'psychic detective' and her friend Jess Maldonado, investigate a barn and discover a woman in a transparent cylinder, the lower half of her however are merely swirling gasses. Father Santiago and his companion Brother Martaine are mid -flight when the priest has a nightmare about a malevolent presence in an upstate New York Town. Amy McFarland, a popular high school senior attempts to rescue a girl trapped in a burning building. When the building explodes her body is destroyed but she is somehow still alive, with horrific consequences. When it becomes apparent the Vanderhill's machine is responsible, McCracken, Santiago, Maldonado, McGuernsey, Martaine, McFarland and Virgil himself join forces to reverse the effects of the machine before the authorities succeed with their plan to kill them.