Novel in which a mormon family moves to Raleigh, NC in order for the father to accept a job as a computer programmer. When they arrive in the new town, they learn that several children have been abducted. When their son begins to play with his imaginary friends more and more the parents become worried. Their worries increase when they discover that all of his friend's names are the same as the names of the missing children. Throughout the book, the caretaker comes to work on the house and after almost every time, there is a the mysterious phenomena of many insects/bugs appearing throughout the house. At the end of the story, during Christmas, their son appears at the back door to the house surrounded by the other missing children. Their son had been able to see, hear, and talk with these children who had been abducted by the caretaker and buried under the house. Each buriel coinciding with an outbreak of insects. The son had goaded the caretaker into killing him so that he could then appear to his parents and convince them to help the lost boys. The children all spent Christmas with that family as their parents were called over to have a chance to say their last goodbye.