A troubled young woman, Tracey Ferrand, arrives in the deceptively sleepy High Sierra town of Placer Bend to visit her old friend Ayusha. Unfortunately, Tracey has just stepped into a psychic hot zone and become the target of an ancient, savagely compelling spirit. She can't tell Ayusha about the horrific visions that plague her, especially the nightmare of slicing darkness that ends with the pleading face of a luminous young stranger. That same night, the police find a corpse on the mountainside. At first it looks like suicide by gunshot - but it also looks like he's been eaten. And the victim wears the face of Tracey's nightmare stranger.