Above a Civil War graveyard in the backwoods of Texas, Kevin and Bobby's treehouse was their haven against the world. But the day Tom Plecker comes screaming through the creek below, terrified of a shadow man, that all changes. Walking Tom home they see it — the tree, its branches twisted like the pain-wracked frame of a fleshless corpse, knotty snarls of bone-white wood clawing the sky.