The story follows Mike Noonan, a once-prolific author in Derry, Maine who finds himself paralyzed by severe writer’s block after the sudden death of his wife, Jo Noonan. Jo’s passing is wrapped in a haunting detail: she had just bought a home pregnancy test but never revealed whether she was expecting. Grief tightens its grip as Mike endures panic attacks that silence his writing, even though he clings to four unpublished manuscripts to keep his agent and editor in the dark about his struggle.
Four years later, Mike begins to nightmare themselves into his summer house, a place locals call “Sara Laughs” in the unregistered Maine township of TR-90. Determined to confront his fears, he moves there and soon crosses paths with a small child, Kyra Devore, walking alone in the middle of the road. He swoops her up, worried that danger lies ahead, and returns to his car. Moments later, Kyra’s mother, Mattie Devore, arrives in her old jeep, clutching her daughter tightly and pleading with Kyra never to run off again. A brief conversation ensues, and Mattie drives away with Kyra.
In town, Mike learns that Mattie’s late husband, Lance Devore, was the son of the powerful Max Devore, a man whose wealth and influence loom large over the community. Max, now elderly and wheelchair-bound, seeks custody of his granddaughter and uses every resource to cast Mattie as an irresponsible mother. Through his caretaker Bill, Mike pieces together Mattie’s history, her marriage, and the custody battle that shadows them all.
Max’s reach extends into Mike’s life when he learns that Mike ran into Mattie and Kyra and threatens him by phone. Rather than back down, Mike hires [John Storrow], a custody lawyer, for Mattie as an act of kindness and begins to feel drawn to Mattie despite a nearly twenty-year age gap. With the help of another local lawyer, Romeo Bisonette, Mike dismantles Devore’s game by outsmarting the opposing counsel and exposing his bluff during the deposition that precedes the hearing.
As Mike begins to write again, both he and Kyra experience supernatural hauntings in their homes. He questions locals about Sara Tidwell, a blues singer whose vengeful spirit haunts Mike’s house, and discovers that Jo had often returned to the town in the year before her death without telling him. Max’s threats intensify, and a violent confrontation with Max and his personal assistant Rogette Whitmore erupts. Mike survives only with the aid of his wife’s spirit, and Max ultimately takes his own life, a death that lifts a major burden from Mattie and Kyra.
The danger escalates when a gunman crashes a party attended by Mike, Mattie, John, and Romeo, opening fire and killing Mattie. Mike, the only adult spared, carries Kyra back to Sara Laughs as a fierce storm roils the coastline. Under the sway of Sara Tidwell’s ghost, he contemplates drowning Kyra and taking his own life, even offering Kyra cocoa laced with Benadryl to render her unconscious and drawing a bath. But Jo’s spirit intervenes, steadying him and urging him to resist.
While Kyra rests, Mike searches Jo’s studio and uncovers documents she had hidden away, including a genealogy that reveals his blood relation to one of the town’s old families. The chart shows that Mike and Jo’s child—who would have been named with a first initial “K”—would have been the next in the line if she had lived. Mike realizes Sara Tidwell’s curse is tied to a terrible past injustice, and to break it he must confront Sara’s grave. The plan leads him back to the countryside with a shovel and a bottle of lye, determined to destroy Sara’s bones. The ritual is opposed by the ghosts of Max Devore’s grandfather and other town men, who reveal that Sara and her son Kito suffered violent deaths at their hands, and that the earlier “K” children were their descendants. Reaching Sara’s burial site, Mike faces resistance from Sara’s spirit, who has enlisted the help of “The Outsider” to stop him. Jo appears in corporeal form to aid him, and together they rush to complete the act of breaking the curse by destroying Sara’s bones with the lye.
Returning to the house, Mike discovers Rogette Whitmore has kidnapped Kyra. He pursues them to a neighboring property, where Kyra bites Rogette and tries to escape onto a dock as waves crash around them. Mattie’s ghost materializes to shield Kyra and Rogette is knocked into the lake, where wreckage seals her fate. With Rogette gone and Mattie’s spirit watching, Kyra is revealed to be Mike’s daughter in spirit, a turn of fate that cements the bond between them.
In the epilogue, Mike has retired from writing and faces the practicalities of adopting Kyra. As a single man, the process is slow, but the state allows him to visit Kyra and to have overnight stays. The outcome of the adoption remains unresolved, yet the narrative closes on a note of cautious hope, with a promising future for Mike and Kyra as they navigate the path ahead together.
