In a small Southern town, couple Ted and Angie are brutally murdered while having sex down by the riverfront, and their bodies are thrown into the water.

Several days later, Bob and Kathy, both young college students home for summer vacation, make plans to attend the traveling carnival on its last night.

Also in attendance are Sheila, a local grocery clerk; a young coed named Walker; the nubile Ramona and her boyfriend, Tom; and prankster Diddle and his girlfriend, Sandy.

Shortly after, while sitting alone in an unpopulated part of the carnival, she is shot with an arrow, and stumbles to an abandoned carousel, where an assailant suffocates her to death with a plastic bag.

She leaves in tears, and is confronted by the local sheriff, Avery, who denigrates her and blames her for a car accident she was in that resulted in his son, Casey, sustaining a brain injury that left the boy intellectually disabled.

Shortly after, Avery arrives at Neil's house and finds the garage covered in blood before a corpse falls from the rafters.

Soon after, Bob, Kathy, and Lily arrive at the bonfire, and the group all decide to visit the local cemetery, a short distance away through the woods.