NATHAN CHAMBERS and his bride-to-be want to rekindle their romance after they were forced to cancel their wedding at the start of the pandemic, and the stressful lockdown that followed left the relationship on rocky ground. Nate hopes some quality time at the treasured family cottage will help them put things right.

The young couple arrives with nature promising blue skies despite the looming storm clouds, but they quickly realize that rain will be the least of their worries. Something weird is happening on the lake. The locals are distant, the animal life is scattered or missing, and Nate senses a threatening presence in the trees.

When a mysterious group moves into the abandoned cottage on the lot beside theirs, a neighbor's death soon after raises the specter of the pandemic's return, though the truth is more horrifying—even if it sounds insane.

The strangers next door are a dangerous breed, but they've been followed to the lake by something worse. A time of reckoning has come, and blood will mark a return of the Kind that first terrified in BENT STEEPLE.