Cole is a mixed Native American literature teacher at a university campus in Santa Cruz. Strange things begin to happen in Santa Cruz, murders of young women. At the same time Cole begins to have nightmares, visions from the past when California was under Spanish rule and of a black and white figure appearing in front of his house.
In order to help Cole, a lot of characters get involved into his life and into the plot like his colleague Native American teacher Alex, his daughter comes to live with him and even his substitute teacher Robert starts paying him visits. All the while, his uncle and father embark on a journey to visit him because they sense what is happening to him, that it's much more dangerous than he thought, and they need to help him. Cole goes through several Native America rituals which bring out his visions and the last one even results in a vision of his dead brother.
One of Cole's students, an older guy called Paul Kantner, seems to like Abby, his daughter, and they go on a walk together which leaves an uneasy feeling in Abby about the guy. Abby's feeling is correct, as it turns out that Paul was the one responsible for serial murders of women in Santa Cruz. He was about to do the same to her and Alex, but Robert found them in time and killed Paul.
This seems to be the climactic end of the story, until Alex and Abby are attacked by the black and white figure from Cole's dreams. He is no other than Robert. He shoots Alex and takes Abby to perform a sacrificial ritual for the earth. Before this happens, Abby gets a hold of the gun and shoots him.
Cole arrives to the scene just in time to see the black and white ghost figure of the priest from his dreams about the past before it vanishes. It's a happy ending for everyone, the threats are gone, but there is still a shadow looming over Santa Cruz complaining of cruelty.
