Janet Thayer comes to Haiti illegally to find her missing brother; her only clue leads her to a mansion called Rancho Maria and its strangely hostile master, Ben Coburn.

Reluctantly he protects her from the police, but asserts that she is in greater danger from voodoo. Her brother has been turned into a zombie; if she stays, she will die.

Skeptical, Janet refuses to leave. Then she discovers that she is not immune to the power of the voodoo drums--and that Rancho Maria is no refuge from their power to kill.