When Carlton Layton arrives home to find his wife in the arms of another man, he dons the outfit he wears as a children's entertainer and slaughters them both, fleeing into the night. Five years later, Carley Lewis is asked to babysit on Halloween night whilst the child's parents go out to a party. But someone wants the child. Someone we know only as "The Cleaver".

The true story of how a young girl begins to suspect that her neighbour on a quiet suburban street is fugitive family killer John List.