MISTY WITLOW, an aspiring actress, heads to the beach near Los Angeles to enjoy the sun and videotape a greeting to send home to her mother. An enormous shark, pale white in color, surfaces in a deep channel near her. The massive beast, larger than a schoolbus, glides past and rams the rocky outcropping she is standing on.  Tossed to the ground, she stares directly into a widening maw big enough to swallow a car.
She is the sole witness to a killing machine thought to have been extinct for millions of years - the Charcarocles Megalodon. Misty has proof of the encounter though, in her camera, and a tooth the shark lost when it hit the rock. Misty raises the alarm, however, getting people to believe her is a tough call. The shark has taken to deeper waters again, however, sticks close enough to the shore that it sinks ships and causes a number of deaths. So far, she is the only one who has seen it the only one living that is. She finally convinces Park Ranger BARRY FITZSIMMONS who takes her to his friend, DR. LAWRENCE MC GILL, a marine biologist who nicknames the shark 'Ghostie' because of her odd pale coloring. He believes her and decides he must go in search of this amazing, living fossil from the past.

The hunt for Ghostie is on - a race between the well-meaning, but under equipped scientists, an unscrupulous reporter, and big game hunters determined to bag the biggest prize of all.