Arlis is an eleven year old boy. When you’re eleven the world is full of strange and wondrous things – things like violence and death, which can emerge from nowhere and change your life forever.
Arlis lives with a travelling fairground. There’s Emmett and Lindy, the couple who run the carnival along with Jared, the legless cripple, the gorgeous snake-trainer Katrina, a pair of monkeys and a bear, and they make their home on the open road. Emmett and Lindy are not Arlis’ parents. He doesn’t know who his real parents are, or where he comes from.
But then the fair arrives in a small town called Bailey Creek, where Arlis meets Faith, the pastor’s daughter, and finds both a friend and, perhaps, some answers. Faith is no ordinary girl: she knows the secrets of the corn fields, and with a sacrifice dedicated to the scarecrow who reigns over the area she initiates Arlis into their mysteries as well. And around them, invisible but alarming, ghosts begin to appear.