Detective Charlie Hochmeyer from a Pennsylvania anthracite coal town hears of a missing woman named Amanda Fielding, last seen walking a few blocks home after drinks and a movie. Amanda is a former high school girlfriend of Charlie's, but he takes the case against regulations. Charlie tries to locate an Indian friend of Amanda's whom she has disappeared with before, and he thinks the death of Amanda's sister in a train accident years earlier may somehow be connected. This traditional police inquiry gets turned on its head as it takes an unusual turn in a search for a lost spirit.