Mavis Gary is a writer of teen literature who returns to her small hometown to relive her glory days and attempt to reclaim her happily married high school sweetheart. When returning home proves more difficult than she thought, Mavis forms an unusual bond with a former classmate who hasn't quite gotten over high school, either.

Ten years ago, Harry Warden murdered twenty-two people with a pickaxe. Tom returns to his hometown on the anniversary of the Valentine's night massacre. Instead of a homecoming, however, Tom finds himself suspected of committing the murders instead of Harry. The only person who seems to believe he is innocent is his old girlfriend. Now, something has returned to the town of Harmony. Wearing a miner's mask and armed with a pickaxe, an unstoppable killer...

For Aaron Falk, going back home is not going to be easy. After all, with the area facing an extreme drought, everyone is in a constant state of alert. It is against this strange backdrop that Falk stumbles into a mystery that is four decades old. Many years ago, a teenage girl died under mysterious circumstances. And the more that Falk investigates this cold case, the more he realizes that it may have something to do with the town's more recent tragedies....