Eager to start fresh, Leigh accepts a teaching job in the remote northern community of Spruce Bay. The fading mining community is rife with abandoned homes that breed a class of listless alcoholics and violent gangs. Resentment and hopelessness fill the cold air. Nevertheless, Leigh loves the town and the kids in her classes.

Just as she begins believing everything will work out, she has a second psychotic break from reality. And another teacher is murdered ... that same night.

Leigh remembers harsh, evil whispers and an ax. Nothing more.

As the body count rises, Leigh and her husband become the last line of defense against an evil force that wants to destroy the town.