The head character of the novel, Doctor Louis Creed, moves into a new home with his wife, Rachel Creed, their two young children, Ellie and Gage, and Ellie's cat, Winston Church. After a while, Dr. Louis meets their new neighbor, Jud. Jud warns of the highway passing in front of Louis's house and says too many trucks pass at high speed.
CLIMAX
Events begin with the death of Victor Pascow with a fatal head injury after a car crash. Louis Creed sees Victor Pascow dead in his nightmare.
FALLING ACTION
Ellie's cat dies after a truck crash. Louis tells Jud that there is a cemetery and that those buried in this cemetery are resurrected. People left this cemetery thinking that sometimes death is better than life. Louis does not want his daughter to be sad, and he buries the cat in that cemetery. The cat is too aggressive after being resurrected.
RESOLUTION
Gage, who has just learned to walk, runs across the lawn towards the road, and he is killed by a speeding truck. Louis wants to bury him in the cemetery, but Jud guesses Louis's plan and tells him another story to discourage him. Despite all this, Louis buries Gage in the cemetery.
Ellie dreams about something wrong with her father and tells her mother. Rachel immediately goes home. The resurrected Gage sneaks into Jud's house and kills him with a scalpel his father took out of his bag. After a while, Gage also kills Rachel. Finding Gage, Louis kills him and Winston Church by injecting fatal morphine.
Louis burns the house with all the bodies except Rachel's and takes Rachel to the cemetery. After burying Rachel in the cemetery, Louis arrives at the house he burned, and investigators question him about the fire, but he gives no information about himself. After that, Rachel's cold hand falls on Louis's shoulder. Rachel says in a dirty tone, Darling, ...