Burke Martin is an awkward 6th grade misfit. His cousin Ellie is a know-it-all smarty pants. Though they are completely different on the outside, on the inside the same strange things are happening to them. Burke is the first to figure out that the odd feelings coincide with the full moon. Ellie just thinks she is going crazy. Burke's dad, Ellie's Uncle Tebin, seems to be going crazy too because amidst it all he rushes them off to Virginia to visit their catatonic grandmother. And that is just where the adventure really begins. Together they discover secret treasure, an ancient map and the darkness inside themselves.