By 2011, Dr. George Kenney has amassed a following of high-achieving students whom he hypnotized to optimize their performance in creative endeavors and athletics. What the community doesn't know is that Dr. Kenney has no formal hypnosis training. One day, the high school football star, Marcus Freeman, and his girlfriend, Casey O'Boyle, are involved in a car accident where only Casey survives. Casey claims that Marus went into a hypnotic state moments before the crash. Could this have been caused by his regular hypnosis sessions with his principal? When two more students die under suspicious circumstances, attention turns to Dr. Kenney. Was he coercing them with his treatment?  

Le Roy is a small blue-collar community in Western New York about thirty minutes from Rochester and is the birthplace of Jell-O. In the fall of 2011, a high school cheerleader, Katie Krautwurst, at Le Roy Highschool suddenly seems to fall ill – experiencing spasms, uncontrollably violent movements, and physical outbursts – and loses control of her body. Her family, teachers, fellow students, and several doctors are baffled. As weeks wore on, a few other students, many of them Katie's peers on the cheerleading squad, and others in the school band, exhibiting similar symptoms. Suddenly, dozens of students and adults in the community are afflicted. Are they copycat crimes? Environmental poisoning? Mass hysteria? Questions swirl as the community desperately scrambles for answers.