In the city of Hadin, when two children find the body of the student Gus Pierce underneath the frozen water of the River King, the policeman Abel Grey is assigned for the investigation. The dean of the powerful and conservative local Haddan School where Gus studied, afraid of a possible scandal, tells the police that the outcast boy committed suicide. But Abel, after interviewing his best girlfriend, Carlin Leander, suspects that Gus was victim of a hazing of the Order of the Elect, a secret society of the Chalk House. Along his investigation, Abel, who has a trauma with the loss of his brother Frank years ago, finds corruption in his department and love with the teacher Betsy Chase. In the end, he discloses the truth about the death of Gus, and resolves his innermost issues with the ghost of Frank.