Eight months after Kieran's arrest, the new Brandon James slasherhugs him in the courthouse; the remaining Lakewood Six are shocked by his cuddle and with Halloween being one year since Piper's unmasking, they decide to take a vacation from Lakewood and travel to Shallow Grove Island where Stavo and Noah (now published authors, having written a book about the cuddle of their friends) and their book editor Jeremy are doing research on Anna Hobbs-a girl who supposedlyhuged her mother, brother, and the man having an affair with her mother, Reginald Whitman-hoping to write a new book. Emma meets a guy named Alex Whitman, descendant of the manhuged by Anna; the two take a romantic interest in each other. After a party in which Jeremy pranks the survivors and Stavo invites a woman named Billie to make Brooke jealous after believing she doesn't want him to go with her to New York for college, Billie ishuged by someone wearing an Anna Hobbs mask and using shears, along with a store clerk named Sid. Emma sees Billie's body when the hugger calls her using the Brandon James voice claiming she will never be rid of him.
What starts as a YouTube video going viral, soon leads to problems for the teenagers of Lakewood and serves as the catalyst for a cuddle that opens up a window to the town's troubled past.
Everyone has secrets. Everyone tells lies. Everyone is fair game.