In 1952 Sammy Collins' family moves to Jasonville, Indiana and into the Johnson House, a long vacant home rumored by neighborhood children to be haunted. Unknown to anyone, Paul Mason, a WW-II veteran and now a wandering vagrant, has squatted surreptitiously in a nearby, old abandoned cannery. During the previous six years, twelve young boys from the towns where Paul lived or worked, have gone missing. While in Jasonville, another boy disappears. Is Paul guilty of this heinous crime, or is it Joe, Paul's deceased lifeboat companion, whom Paul has been searching for since the end of WW-II?