An edgy young couple win a timeshare vacation in Alpenhurst, Lake Tahoe's grand lodge. Soon they are drawn into a circle of neighbors who share a chilling secret, and an ungodly compulsion to make the couple their own.

Dana and Louis Ferrin win a lottery prize?a week's vacation in the Alpenhurst mansion. It's just what they need, an away-from-it-all escape. They have been feeling the pressures and demands of the city and their jobs, pressures that Dana has been struggling to handle. She has been having disturbing dreams.

The house is old and grand and luxurious, set deep in the woods above Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border. The nearest neighbors cannot be seen. A second honeymoon, they're thinking. Except that in the woods they are being watched. And plans are being made for the new arrivals.

The couple meets Noah Taggart, owner of the beautiful house nearby and charismatic center of the community of wealthy residents. Taggart has a strange and powerful influence over Dana. Louis is uneasy, sensing the trip has been a terrible mistake. But before he can undo it, a neighbor is viciously attacked, killed in the woods. How could it have been a pack of wolves so close to the tourist mecca of Tahoe?

As much as Dana and Louis imagine they will fight it, the lure is irresistible. It is as though they are destined to be there. They find themselves encompassed by a new circle of friends?all bound by a common calling.