The Carver family is vacationing to Lake Tahoe, but while on a stretch of highway in Nevada, are arrested by a strange police officer. His name is Collie Entragian, sheriff of a town called Desperation, Nevada. The town itself is completely deserted because Entragian is really a demon who's been killing and harvesting the bodies. David, the Carver families youngest son, is the only one who can fight the evil of Desperation.