John Klein (Richard Gere) loses his wife Mary (Debra Messing) to a car crash only to discover that she had a brain tumor that would have killed her soon anyway. After her death, Klein finds that Mary left behind some sketches of a strange winged figure that she claimed she saw during the accident. Several years later, a still grieving Klein, who is a reporter for the Washington Post, sets off on an assignment out of town but his car breaks down in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. After an encounter with a frightened homeowner (Will Patton) he discovers that he somehow has ended up 400 miles away from his original destination without knowing how he got there. He is in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, a town that has been plagued with eerie sightings of creatures similar to the winged figure in his late wife’s drawings. Klein thinks the events are related to his wife’s accident and begins to investigate the odd happenings. He eventually draws on the help of skeptical but frustrated local sheriff Connie Mills (Laura Linney) as the mysterious creature toys with him.