Follow two small boys, Jimmy Newton and Mikey Flaherty, as they innocently throw the quiet town of Saunterville into panic one Devils' Night. Mr. Flaherty had instructed the boys not to use a sharp knife by themselves to carve an odd shaped pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. But anxious to make the jack-o-lantern, they don't listen Instead, they plunge the big knife into the odd pumpkin's thick skin, and to their horror, it lets out a wild shriek To the little boys, it is a terrifying monster And it is alive They bury it in a hay pile for fear of what it could possibly do. They are even more afraid of what Mr. Flaherty will do when he discovers they have disobeyed him But the pumpkin disappears from the hay pile and neither boy knows where it is or who moved it The shrieking pumpkin had been heard throughout the whole town and that causes a series of events that frighten everyone: a mysterious old owl stalks the neighborhood; a huge black panther materializes out of a strange dark mist and then just disappears; eerie cries are heard in the night; and an old neighbor woman seems bewitched by all the madness and turns into a real witch and maybe even a murderess When the two boys try to find the pumpkin and solve all the mysterious events by themselves they get into deeper and more dangerous trouble See where their curiousity takes them and how one act of disobedience leads to frightening occurrences that sends the sleepy little town into turmoil.