On the small island of Blackthorn, known for its forbidding trees that look like exotic, menacing beasts and also a bit like several missing children, Paul Gold, one of two young identical twin boys, vanishes. He seemingly visits his younger sister Katie, who isn't certain if her brother's a ghost-or something else. When Katie embarks on her first love affair with a handsome, wealthy boy named Julian Bloomfield, she doesn't realize her mother Victoria suspects Julian had something to do with Paul's disappearance. At the same time Victoria starts to believe she is seeing Paul again here and there on the island. Blackthorn is hiding very sinister secrets that Katie is an unsuspecting part of and Julian is an unsuspecting witness to. Quite a few other islanders are involved and the resolution all comes back to what happened to Paul.
