Haunted by the tragic loss of her third-grade students in a school shooting, Emily Sinclair, a secluded teacher, grapples with the ghosts of her past. As she battles the anxiety of stepping outside and confronting the judgmental eyes of her town, she discovers a chilling presence lurking in the shadows?an eerie manifestation of her deceased students and ghostly apparitions she dubs "the pales," drawing closer with every hesitant step. Questioning her own sanity, Emily turns to psychiatrist Paul Cusick, unraveling her story as an educator facing the seemingly unteachable. Yet, in the unraveling, the line between reality and perception blurs, revealing a twisted truth beyond imagination.