A group of Californian students frequent a remote old house to experiment with LSD. One of them, Michael Quinn, is both highly intelligent and truly evil. The search for pleasure turns to nightmare when a child is killed. Quinn is responsible for this and other crimes, but implicates the others who include the gentle Paul Dunsany and the pragmatic Hal Jamieson. As the police net begins to close, it is Jamieson who leads the search for an escape.Twenty years later, just as Quinn is unexpectedly released from jail, a mysterious young Englishwoman named Joni Lascelles begins to ask question that will unravel the past. She seeks out Dunsany. Does he want to get involved again in this dangerous business? In the end, he has no choice. Because as the trail leads back into the closed world of software mogul Hal Jamieson, it becomes apparent that the horror of the past is poised to engulf the present, leaving no one untouched by its power.