Roland and his band have narrowly escaped the city of Lud and boarded Blaine, a train that will take them to, of all places, Kansas, where the ghost city of Topeka has been depopulated by a superflu and where, alongside Interstate 70, an emerald palace rises enchantingly. Before Roland and the companions of his ka-tet continue along the Path of the Bean, Roland must tell his companions the tale that defines him both as a man and hero, a long-ago romance...

"Can an entire city be haunted? The Losers' Club of 1958 seems to think so. After all, when they were teenagers back then, these seven friends who called the small New England metropolis of Derry their home had first-hand experience with what made this place so horribly different. Every twenty-seven years, something that has existed here for a very long time comes back to terrorize Derry, lurking in the city storm drains and sewers, taking the shape...