When local prosecutor Autopsy Bliss publishes an invitation to the devil to come to the heatwave-scorched town of Breathed, Ohio, nobody expects that he will turn up, especially as a tattered 13-year-old boy.
Fielding, the son of Autopsy, brings the boy home, and he is welcomed into the family. The Blisses believe the boy, who calls himself Sal, is a runaway. Then, as a series of strange incidents implicate Sal, the townsfolk begin to believe that Sal is exactly who he claims to be....