Thirteen years ago, Winter Black came home early from a sleepover to find her parents brutally murdered and her little brother gone — taken by a serial killer called The Preacher. Now a rookie FBI agent assigned to her first murder case, Winter has returned to the small Virginia town where she grew up. But when bones found by a hunter lead to the discovery of a secret burial ground containing the remains of children, the investigation suddenly hits close to home as the past and future collide with each new shocking discovery.

Following the incident that brought justice to her parents’ killers but ended her career, former FBI Special Agent Rebecca West needs a fresh start. Hoping to find peace, she decides to spend a few months in the sleepy beach town of Shadow Island, where she spent idyllic summers as a kid. However, her vacation is cut short when a seventeen-year-old goes missing with no leads or clues. When the girl’s body is found in a nearby marsh with strangulation marks around her neck, Rebecca can’t say no when the overworked sheriff asks her to help investigate.

Former NSA agent Eve Wicker has faced many hardships and tragedies in life. Needing to be closer to her ailing father, Eve takes a position as her hometown Sheriff. A position she never imagined would open many old wounds from her past. When she receives a phone call about a body in the woods, She drives up to the crime scene. There, she grabs the attention of the town’s mountain recluse. Roman Pike, a big burly ex-marine who’s as abrasive as he is brash.

Military veteran Amelia Storm returns to her hometown of Chicago when her beloved police officer brother is killed in the line of duty. Now she is a special agent with the FBI. No longer a scared girl, she vows to avenge her brother and do what she can to end the city's deep wells of corruption.

In the remote forests of Stillwater, Minnesota, you can scream for days and no one will hear you. So when the bodies of two 15-year-old girls are discovered frozen in the snow, Special Agent Nikki Hunt is sure the killer is local: Someone knew where to hide the girls and thought they would never be found. Though Nikki hasn’t been home in 20 years, she knows she must take over the case.