A truck crash on an icy road leaves small-time criminal Emory Wick stranded on the side of the road with a load of dangerous cargo. Wick sets out in search of a phone and is pursued by coyotes into the darkened doorway of the local boogeyman, Nikola Myshkin.

Not far away, in the sleepy town of Chinook, local deputy Ruth Vogel picks up the first whiff of trouble on the police radio while she hides out from her sister Beth’s prayer circle.