Jake Salmon's family has moved to a creepy, cramped house in historic Manassas, on the outskirts of the famous Civil War battlefield. Outside his bedroom window stands an old oak tree where, by night, a street lamp throws a shadow from the tree onto his closet door in the appearance of a hang-man's noose. Late one night, Jake hears footsteps in the basement. Convinced there's a killer hiding in his house, he does what any other twelve-year-old would do. He ducks under his pillow and hides. But when he witnesses a man running across their snow-covered lawn without leaving any footprints, Jake...