The Tender and Playlen families were just two of many trying to carve out calm and fruitful existences in a nice place...But death, evil death, came as powerful opponent: The horror and mystery begins when some of the local residents start to turn up dead. The suspects are varied: the suspicious are all present or past employees of Lakeside Elementary School in Saint Petersburg, a small resort town in west central Florida. The story takes place nine years after the end of one of the deadliest wars in history: World War II. The personal problem for Tim and Todd Tender--fraternal twins--develops when their two best friends, Dink and Link Playlen--identical twins--are kidnapped. Both sets of brothers, precocious to say the least, had recently started their sixth-grade, big-shot year at Lakeside. Because of an extremely incompetent sheriff and his under-sheriff (the only law in the tiny town), the Tenders, with the aid of an Annie Oakley-wannabe teacher, are left to rescue their buddies before they become additional deadly scenes in the community's nightmare...