Over the decade leading up to the summer of 1984, a total of 13 teenage boys disappeared in Cape May,
Oregon, but their disappearances have never been connected or solved. As the summer begins, 15-year-old Davey Armstrong, who works a paper route in Ipswich, initially enjoys carefree diversion with his friends, Dale "Woody" Woodworth, Curtis Farraday, and Tommy "Eats" Eaton. They spend time on Eats' treehouse, which will be torn down by his belligerent father. They fantasize about Nikki, an attractive girl who used to be Davey's babysitter. Davey suspects that his neighbor Wayne Mackey, a well-liked police officer in the community, is the Cape May Slayer. Because of Davey's fondness for
conspiracy theories and
urban legends, Davey's friends reject this theory. When a boy Davey had seen inside Mackey's house
goes missing, they agree to help him investigate. Meanwhile, Nikki visits with Davey, confiding that her parents are divorcing and she will be leaving the neighborhood. Documenting Mackey's daily routine, the boys find many suspicious activities: Mackey regularly purchases gardening tools and bags of soil, brings a
duffel bag to work every day, and goes on late-night jogs. One night, Davey is caught by Mackey while planting a
walkie-talkie outside his window, and worries he has becoming suspicious. While Mackey is away, the boys search his property. They present their findings, including a bloodstained T-shirt, supposedly belonging to the latest missing boy, to Davey's parents. To their dismay, his parents are outraged and call their investigation vandalism. Mr. Armstrong has the boys apologize to Mackey, and grounds Davey. The next day, Mackey visits Davey's home and attempts to dissuade Davey's suspicion by claiming the boy who visited his home was his nephew, only for Davey to suspect him more. The following day, a suspect is arrested in the Cape May Slayer case, with Mackey the arresting officer. Disgusted, Davey makes plans to break into Mackey's home during the Cape May Festival. Farraday, who attends the festival as a lookout, discovers that the bags of soil were purchased for a city
beautification project, and he and Eats abandon their posts. Davey, Woody, and Nikki enter Mackey's home with Mr. Armstrong's video camera and explore a locked room in the basement, decorated to resemble Mackey's childhood room. In the bathroom, they find the missing boy's desiccated corpse in the bathtub, along with a still-alive recent abductee. They find a wall of framed photographs of the missing children. There is a photo of Davey's family, indicating Davey will be the next target. They present their footage to the Ipswich Police Department, who issue an
APB on Mackey, marking him as a wanted criminal. Davey's parents apologize to their son for not believing him. Mackey, secretly hiding in Davey's attic, abducts Davey and Woody in the middle of the night. He takes them to an offshore island for a sadistic game of manhunt. As Mackey pursues them, the boys flee into the wilderness but lose their footing on a corpse dump. Mackey slashes Davey's leg then proceeds to slit Woody's throat. He spares Davey, leaving him traumatized and constantly paranoid. After a hospital stay, Davey returns to his morning paperboy route. He passes Woody's house, now foreclosed. Nikki waves goodbye to him as her custodial parent drives her away. He comes upon Eats and Farraday trashing the demolished treehouse, both of them avoiding his gaze. Eventually Davey passes Mackey's house, plastered with police tape. He unfurls a newspaper, the headline announcing the Cape May Slayer is still at large. ==Cast==