Can dirt be evil? Not conceptual evil that's either moral or natural. But dank, almost ethereal malevolence comprised of sand, silt, and clay. A profound evil, like the evil that lurks in the sleepy town of Jasper Mill, Tennessee.

Some claim evil came to the Mill in the summer of '94 with the death of little David Abrams at the Kromwell summer camp. But that just shook the hive. Others say old John Tate-the madman who plagued the town in the '60s-planted the evil in the dirt himself, punched it right into the earth with his two big, bloody fists.

But Jasper Mill is evil. It's always been there. Always. Right there in the dirt.

Joey Carpenter doesn't know it, but the dirt is coming for him. At just fifteen, he's learned what the hands of depraved men can do. It had been an innocent conversation with another gay person, another "unicorn." Something to make him feel less alone in the world. But when he awoke in the ICU, he realized it had been much darker.

Joey will escape his bigoted father. He'll flee from the courtroom trial that threatens to publicize his secrets. He'll run all the way to the Tennessee mountains, to Kamp Kromwell, where the dirt waits for him.