The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a story driven experience, where you play as paranormal investigator Paul Prospero. Prospero has received a fan letter from Ethan Carter a young boy, from Red Creek Valley, Wisconsin, who can see things most people cannot nor would they want to. Prospero than decides to visit Red Creek Valley in order to look for Ethan Carter who he believes to be missing.
Upon arriving in Red Creek Valley Prospero first encounters some traps that when all discovered reveal a field of bones. In that field is a note that tells a story of a man who would set traps in the woods. The old man set those traps in order to keep villagers from getting to the sap the old man liked to drink. The old man started a rumor about an amulet being hidden in the forest as further reason for the villagers not to go after the sap. However one villager lights the whole forest on fire, the old man only surviving because he covers himself in sap. When he returned to the village the old man discovers none of the villagers survived so he returned to drinking his sap. Than you hear a man speaking, his name is Ed. Ed is telling Ethan he can read his story later. You than return to the world you start in and discover a newspaper with an article about how Edwin Carter may have started a fire that killed his wife.
Continue down the path and you find a body sprawled out on the train tracks. Look around for evidence and after returning a rock to its place of origin various plot points pop up. It is than up to you to put the points in chronological order in order to watch the scene as it plays out. If you have the points in the wrong order you will watch until you are out of order and than start again. This particular part shows you how Ethan's brother Travis is looking for Ethan in order to kill him only for their grandfather Ed to appear and kill Travis using a rock a pipe and the train. He than attempts to kill Ethan. Ethan pleads with him not to saying he will destroy a room and everything will be okay. Ed says he cannot do that.
Down the path a little farther is some sort of code device. Figure out the pattern and an astronaut appears before you follow him and eventually he leads you to his ship which will than take you into space. Inside the spaceship you will find another of Ethan's stories this one about a spaceman. You will than be taken back to reality.
Keep following the path and you will come across two houses within one house is various portals to the other put the portals in order and a secret magical room is revealed to you. Within it is another one of Ethan's stories.
Enter the other house and as you go into different rooms Dialogue from Ethan's different family members will play. pieces of the story are revealed to you.
It seems Ethan went into a secret room only to wake up some sort of entity referred to as the sleeper. His Mother believes that Ethan needs to be sacrificed in order to appease the sleeper. The entire family is being affected to different degrees by The Sleeper.
From there it is up to you through the eyes of Prospero to figures out how the cult of The Sleeper affected the Carter family, what happened to Ethan, and to find and experience all of Ethan's different stories that he has written and left hidden for you.