The crooked smiling liar River West, who drove into Violet's life one summer day and shook her world to pieces, is gone. Violet and River's brother Neely are left to worry until they catch an eerie radio broadcast about strange events in a distant mountain town. They take off cross country in search of River, but are always a step behind, finding instead frenzied towns, witch hunts, and a wind whipped island with the thrum of something strange and dangerous just below the surface. It isn't long before Violet begins to wonder if Neely, the only one she thought trustworthy, has been hiding a secret of his own and for her, the devil always lurks in the shadow of a secret.