When Rubin Sawyer, a former resident of Iron Mountain, partnered with Knoxville detective Thomas Jordan to find who abducted women along trails and cabins of the mountain, he was deemed a traitor. As an act of revenge, his granddaughter is snatched from the banks of Doe Creek and taken to the bowels of the mountain. Soon after, hikers along the Appalachian Trail become sacrificial lambs, part of a bloody, cunning game of maneuvers designed to lead Sawyer to the mountain's infamous Hanging Tree.