Joyce Wales had come to the musty summer theater in Maine, little knowing the brutal terror she would soon feel. But in the dark, secret places of the theater buildings, Joyce sensed an ominous presence - a sinister portent of terror to come.

She frequently had nightmares of that long, dry August, and in them the heat and the phantom figure were inextricably linked. A summer theater was an unlikely place for the appearance of a violent ghost garbed in the motoring costume of a past era. Yet this phantom, undaunted by walls or doors, threatened to break up a show - and a life!