A doomsday cult. A homicide detective on the edge. A bloody and rising body count.

When Detective Chloe Van Belle is pulled from a macabre murder scene at a carnival fun house to investigate a grisly site deep in the Ohio woods, what she finds turns her stomach: an altar of human and animal remains, including the skull of a young child.

Chloe suspects The Hearth—a secretive religious cult obsessed with children and prophecy. Then she uncovers a disturbing pattern of missing children that may tie The Hearth to the trafficking and adoption network she exposed months earlier.

As fear spreads through Halpin River and more people are murdered, the case turns personal. Chloe’s cousin Katie joins The Hearth, convinced her kidnapped son is still alive and living with a new family. And Chloe’s journalist sister Hannah, chasing the story of a lifetime, may be reckless enough to compromise the investigation or get herself killed.

With the cult’s prophecy countdown days away, Chloe must uncover the truth and The Hearth’s plans before more children vanish—or worse—are sacrificed, and her recently reconciled family is swallowed by the carnage.