During the frigid winter of 1979, in the small
New England town of Milburn, four elderly friends—businessman Ricky Hawthorne, lawyer Sears James, physician John Jaffrey, and
Mayor Edward Charles Wanderley—form the Chowder Society, an informal men's club who get together each week to share tales of horror. Edward's son David, living in
New York City, falls to his death from his apartment window after seeing a girl he's been sleeping with suddenly turn into a living corpse. His other son, Don, comes home at Edward's request. Sometime after David's funeral, Edward sees him walking through town during a snowstorm and follows him to a bridge, where he disappears. Calling out to his dead son, Edward suddenly sees a female apparition and he falls to his death. Two escaped patients from a mental asylum, Gregory and Fenny Bate, have taken up residence in the old Eva Galli house, now in ruins. Doubting his father committed
suicide, Don approaches the remaining three friends and tells them a "ghost" story to gain membership into the Chowder Society. In a
flashback, Don tells the story of how he, a college professor in
Florida, began an affair with a mysterious secretary named Alma, soon becoming engaged. Alma insisted she wanted to marry Don in his home town of Milburn but he was reluctant. Don soon began to suspect that something was wrong with Alma, especially when he touched her one night and realized she was as cold as a corpse. Don eventually broke things off with a furious Alma, who disappeared from his life. He fell into a
depression, costing him his reputation and his job. A month later, Don called David and learned to his horror that he had become engaged to Alma. He desperately tried to warn David but his brother scoffed at the warning. Don then shows the three elders an old photograph he's found among his father's possessions, showing a young woman who looks identical to Alma. John, realizing what has happened, pleads with his friends to tell the truth but is rebuffed. The next day, John has a nightmare about Alma and dies of a
heart attack. Sears and Ricky finally explain to Don that, in the spring of 1929, the four friends became smitten with a flirtatious young woman named Eva Galli. Edward first took her to bed but he was sexually
impotent. Outside her house, the other three friends
serenaded Eva in hopes of catching a glimpse of her when Edward came to the window instead, giving the impression that he'd slept with her. After the four went out and became drunk, they returned to the house and all but Sears danced with Eva. When it was proposed that they leave, Sears suggestively insisted on getting his dance. Eva began to tell them the truth about her dalliance with Edward when he leapt to silence her, causing her to smash her head on a stone mantelpiece. Assuming Eva to be dead, they loaded her body into her car and pushed it into a nearby pond. As the car descended, Eva stirred inside, screaming and hammering at the back window as the car sank. Back in the present, Ricky and Don believe that Alma and Eva are the same woman and that her ghost has returned to seek revenge. Don suggests they go to Eva's old house to confront her ghost once and for all. There, Don falls through the rotting stairs and breaks his leg. Sears leaves in his car to seek help, leaving Don and Ricky behind. While driving through the snowstorm, Sears comes upon Eva's apparition. He survives being swerved off the road but is attacked and killed by Fenny Bate, one of Eva's accomplices. Ricky realizes that something has happened to Sears and leaves to get help. He is picked up by Gregory Bate, who tells him of Eva's plans for them both, but Ricky stabs him and escapes. Ricky tells the authorities to pull Eva's car up from the lake to reveal her body inside. This is intercut with Don, who confronts the rotting specter of Alma/Eva. Ricky and the authorities drag out the car and wrench open the rusted, corroded door. The rotting corpse of Eva falls harmlessly to the ground. Now that the truth about Eva is known, Don is spared from her vengeance and the town is restored to peace. ==Cast==