When a group of hikers take off for a weekend of fun and adventure in remote mountain region, they unwittingly stumble across the Staunton family - for whom the hill is named - and find themselves at the mercy of a depraved, diabolical brood that will stop at nothing to rid their property of these "trespassers." The only law on Staunton's Hill is the law of the Stauntons...and, in this case, the penalty for defying that law is death.

In the late 1800s, a fanatical religious leader, a renegade Sheriff, and a former prostitute collide in a blood triangle on the rugged plains of the New Mexico Territory.

Years after their teenage daughter’s death, Lois and Doug Riley, an upstanding Indiana couple, are frozen by estranging grief. Doug escapes to New Orleans on a business trip. Compelled by urgencies he doesn’t understand, he insinuates himself into the life of an underage hooker, becoming her platonic guardian.