Dixon Green is no stranger to fear. As the child of a Voodoo priestess in a poor black neighborhood in 1940s New Orleans, he witnesses brutality, desperation, and death. When children start to disappear in the Tremé, word spreads that a terrifying legend is to blame. Buster Voodoo is back... and Dixon's sister is missing.

Sixty years later, Dixon is a custodian at a second-rate theme park, watching the clock wind down with a bottle in his hand. Life is devoid of the magic and mystery of Dixon's childhood until it comes to his attention that children are disappearing into the shadows of the run-down dark ride known as Marie Laveau s Zombie Nightmare. As he begins to question his sanity, a deadly force looms on the horizon that is far more powerful than any boogeyman: Hurricane Katrina.  In two gripping interlaced narratives that build to a devastating climax, Dixon uncovers the terrible realities behind his sister s disappearance and his mother s dark secrets as he struggles to endure the savage days following in the storm s wake.