Jules Daly is struggling to raise her orphaned niece and nephew (Maggie and Milo) alone, but it isn't easy after getting downsized out of her antique sales job while Milo rebels against the death of his parents through petty theft. With things looking bleak for Christmas, an English butler named Paisley arrives with an invitation for all to come see the kids' emotionally distant grandfather who lives in Castlebury Hall, somewhere near Liechtenstein. With nothing to hold them back, they go, but the grandfather - Edward, Duke of Castlebury - is rather cold over their visit to his castle. So is his other surviving son, Ashton, Prince of Castlebury. Before long, they're all having a good time and looking forward to hosting a Christmas Eve ball, but Jules overhears a conversation from which she draws a wrong conclusion.

In 1936, the Wollners - a German family living in rural Morgan County, West Virginia - are contacted by the Third Reich to host a visiting scholar, Professor Richard Wirth. In need of money, they accept Wirth into their home. Wirth's grand occult project seals the Wollners off from the rest of the world and makes them players in a horrifying game of survival. After 71 years, in 2007, Evan Marshall's life has stalled at twenty-five years old. Left without answers after his older brother Victor's disappearance from a camping trip near Town Creek, he has tried to move on. But when Victor returns one night, very much alive and having escaped his captors, Evan asks no questions - at his brother's request, he loads their rifles, packs up their boat and follows him back to Town Creek on a mission of revenge that will test them in every possible way...