All Sarah Edwards wants for her fifteenth birthday is an end to the violent nightmares of blood, water, and monsters that sent her into therapy and put a strain on her once-happy family. Instead, she gets a death in the family.
Traveling cross-country for her grandmother's funeral, she and her siblings, Tia and RJ, find themselves on Keener's Lake near the mountain-nestled town of Hope Falls. To Sarah, the place holds a certain mystique; it's where she was born, and she knows the biological father she doesn't remember is out there somewhere.
But Hope Falls isn't the idyllic town it seems to be. The lake is dark and deep. The neighbors are superstitious. And people go missing in the woods.
Sometimes they never come back. What's worse is when they do.
With a growing sense of alienation, Sarah discovers the truth about her nightmares - and her heritage - while Tia and RJ race against time to save her and their parents from the dark forces at work in Hope Falls. Not all monsters are confined to creature features and videogames. Not all families are bonded by blood. And those bonds will be tested before Sarah's nightmare is over.