Jim Beaudry, or Biscuit, as he's usually known, is a teenage boy trying to stay out of trouble. But trouble has a way of finding him, first in his nightmares and then in his waking life. When one summer afternoon Biscuit and his cousin L. A. discover the savaged body of a schoolgirl in the Texas wilderness, they are pulled into a manhunt that will put both of their lives in danger.