Blake's life is placed in jeopardy when he seeks the reasons behind a hospitalized young boy's fright and retreat into silence. By making a plant grow before a distrusting woman's eyes, Blake hopes she will provide a clue to the event that traumatized a young man in a backwoods town full of close-mouthed people. While performing his magic act in a hospital, Blake encounters Ian Keefer, a 17-year-old who goes into hysterics when he sees fire in the act. Probing the core of Ian's dilemma takes Blake to Elm Ridge, a southern backwoods town where the people, including Sheriff Platt and Mrs. Thatcher, are fearful, silent and sometimes violent.