[1][2] Set during the spring and summer of 1980 in the fictional Hampstead, Connecticut, an adulterous housewife named Stony Friedgood picks up a man at a bar, but is brutally murdered by the patron.

At the same time, her unaware husband Leo, working with the Department of Defense, is involved in the cover up of DRG-16, a nerve gas that escapes its containment and rushes into the town of Hampstead.

Graham Williams, an old historian who murdered a serial killer in his past, and discovered a cycle of evil in the town that arrives every thirty years in the name of a monster named the Dragon, connects with the others and learn from Graham that an older evil has poisoned the town and wreaked havoc, as is happening at that moment.

The Dragon, originally businessman Gideon Winter, had bought land from the town centuries ago and killed women and children.

Tabby reluctantly accompanies three teenage robbers on their trip to doctor Wren Van Horne's home, where they are attacked and killed; several children drown themselves on the town beach; policemen murder each other during an annual meeting at a movie theater; a group of firefighters die when they spontaneously combust trying to stop several houses from burning; Leo escapes town but dies in the streets of New York; and local reporter Sarah Spry and her friend Ulick Byrne attempt to uncover the secret of Hampstead.

Sarah and Ulick, after investigating, arrive at the home of former killer Bates Krell and are attacked by Wren Van Horne, who became the new host of the Dragon and murdered several locals, including Stony Friedgood.

They enter a tunnel and several caverns where each individual is tested by the Dragon: Patsy sees the victims of the Dragon in a chamber, in them Sarah, Ulick, and her husband Les; Richard returns to the set of the show he acted in and is attacked by Billy Bentley, but learns to accept his death; and Graham is embarrassed for his infidelity with his wives and accusations of being a communist.