A hardened criminal receives a sudden and very unexpected parole and moves from the vicious life he lived for more than 20 years to live in a very rural setting. At first, Ray fills his time cleaning up the ramshackle home of his uncle, but he soon finds that he can't live with the older man.

One murder can make some men withdraw and feel remorse. Other men develop a blood lust. One summer evening, a recently graduated young girl out jogging wanders just fifty yards too far away from home, and she is never seen again. When another high school girl goes missing, the local police begin to search into the situation with as many officers and detectives as they can bring to bear.

As the story of Ray and his misdeeds builds, a teen high school fling becomes a genuine romance. When their paths cross that of the man responsible for the evil in the town, who will live and who will die? As the tagline says, this is a story of love, malevolence, murder, and survival.