Welcome to Widow's Bay

Near the New England island town of Widow's Bay, fisherman Shep Clark loses sign from his boat. Subsequently, he notices a fog engulfing his boat. The town is then affected by a blackout followed by a lengthy tremor, the first in twenty years.

Mayor Tom Loftis tries to maintain calmness during the day, as he is expecting Arthur Lloyd, a visiting New York Times journalist. Tom hopes to make a good impression in order to increase tourism for the town, but his nervousness worries the rest of his staff. Civilian Wyck Crawford raises his concerns to Tom and his staff, believing that a curse is plaguing the town, but Tom dismisses his claims. Tom also struggles to raise his teenage son Evan, whose mother died some time ago and is often bored as there is nothing to do in town.

After Wyck rings the town's bell as an alarm, Tom finally agrees to hear his concerns. Wyck states that the fog and tremor are signs that the island is "waking up" and that Tom needs to shut everything down. When Tom believes that Wyck's behavior is because he does not trust his leadership, Wyck brings up that Tom used to play door-knocking in his house with his friends; he knows Tom lied about it, and that makes him question his leadership. Shep is soon found, and taken to the hospital. When Tom visits him, Shep awakens with white eyes and attacks him. Shep loses consciousness, and doctors are unable to resuscitate him.

Tom becomes paranoid, and gets nervous while dining with Arthur. To his surprise, Arthur liked the town and is curious about the strange events surrounding it. Tom notices the fog approaching and the town suffers another blackout. Tom tries to prevent people from leaving into the mist, until the lights come back and the fog disappears. Deep underground, a basement is seen containing a chair with restraints and a large cellar door.