Cooperstown New York, Vietnam Era. The Sugarhouse. We meet Ma Rutledge, the Maple Sugar Madam, her daughters, Bertha and Emma, Bill Rassmussen the town cop, Teddy Granger the singing taxi driver, and hero-narrator Donald O’Donovan. Ten years earlier. Donny and his best friend Turk Monahan, eight years old, pop tar bubbles in the street in front of the Sugarhouse. Two years later. Turk, Donny and little Billy Stamford start out hiking to Natty Bumppo’s cave. They stop to rest near the ruins of an old cabin and well, and Turk tells an eerie story about a ghost hitchhiker.