Pint-sized Winks Shays believes in his gut feelings; they warn the ten-year-old of danger. But he wishes he were more like his new friend, Josh Campbell, who wasn't afraid to save him from a school bully.

Together the boys face a terrible evil that haunts the snowman they build for the town's winter festival. Strange deaths occur near the snowman and, after finding out that Little Pond Lake has a sordid history of unexplained deaths and disappearances, they discover a link between their snowman and a lynching thirty winters ago.

Winks and Josh rush down to the lake at night to destroy their creation. But once alone out on its surface, they find themselves trapped into a confrontation with terrifying dark forces. It is during this final battle that the boys learn that friendship can be the most powerful weapon of all.