Summary

What happens when the people you have mourned and buried suddenly appear on your doorstep as if not a day has gone by? Would it be a miracle, madness and is it even real? The people of Arcadia are forever changed then their deceased loved ones suddenly start to return. An 8-year-old American boy wakes up alone in a rice paddy in a rural Chinese province with no identification and no idea how he got there. Details start to emerge when the boy, who calls himself Jacob, recalls that his hometown is Arcadia, Missouri and an immigration agent, Martin Bellamy (Omar Epps), takes him there. The home he claims as his own is occupied by an elderly couple, Harold and Lucille Garland, who lost their son Jacob more than 30 years ago in a drowning accident. While they look different, young Jacob will recognize them as his own parents. But how can this be? The boy that stands before them looks like their son and knows details about their lives that no one else can know, but this must be an elaborate hoax. Lucille wants to believe but Harold Garland cannot accept it. Those closest to the family try to unravel this impossible mystery, including Sheriff Fred Garland (Matt Craven, Crimson Tide), whose wife Barbara also drowned 30 years ago trying to save Jacob. But this boy who claims to be the deceased Jacob knows secrets about the events of his own death that no one else knows — secrets that Fred’s daughter Gail will begin to investigate and discover to be true. The child’s return will have everyone questioning faith, miracles and the supernatural. When other mysterious strangers start to arrive in Arcadia, we come to know that Jacob is not the only one who has returned.