Tyler's command of the mystifying fighting art called Combat may not be enough to save the life of his dear friend, Molly. In the enchanted Southern California town of Escudillo, nothing is as it seems to be. Rogue clowns roam the streets, a mountain highway twists through the heart of town and no one driving it knows the town is even there, and when an old man, who owns a copper bowl everyone seems to want, dies in a fire, Tyler begins to learn a terrible truth about himself, the town's past, and deadly peril.