1924. Fifteen year old John Olan, along with his mother and younger brother, are forced to live in the haunted, burnt-out remains of a long abandoned jail near Hermann, Missouri when his father is imprisoned for killing a man in self-defense. During their involuntary stay, the family uncovers the truth behind the building's destruction and a coinciding local legend. 2005. John Olan is now in his nineties and suffering from advanced Alzheimer's. His weakened mind forces him to relive the horrors he faced as a teenager in the old Hermann jail, horrors he has for years kept silent about. While John's great-granddaughter, Danielle, tries to piece together what happened during that terrible summer more than eighty years past from his chaotic ramblings, she is forced to deal with two serial murderers. The first, Elihu O'Crea, is a career arsonist who harbored a grudge against the Olan family for more than six decades. The other, Lois Pulaski, is a medication technician at the nursing home where John Olan currently lives. Pulaski's relentless greed, coupled with her unreasoning hatred of the elderly and the disabled, drives her to use her medical knowledge to commit a string of killings for profit.