Elsie Goodwin is barely clinging to life when she wakes to find herself hidden away inside the cellar of Gaston Hall. Hopeful she has found shelter from the nearby battles, she quickly realizes the hell she had escaped hours earlier has followed after her.

Set against the backdrop of the U.S. Civil War, the residents of Gaston Hall find themselves struggling to survive in a place where the worlds of both the living and the dead are intertwined. All is not what it may seem at Gaston Hall-a home for orphaned and abandoned children.

One. Two. Three. Four. The children appeared.

"Ashes. Ashes. We all tumbled down."

Della's eyes fluttered. She shifted in her chair; her mouth pinched. Elsie drew back as the smallest and last of the spectres emerged. The child crawled upon Della's lap, nestling her head against her mother's breast. Della's chin dropped, disappearing within her daughter's matted hair. The others began to sway, moving around their mother and sister in a close circle and humming the horrific tune. Elsie watched in horror but remained firm in her place. Were the children sending her clues or taunting their mother? It couldn't be. Oh, what wicked thing did you do?

Elsie leaned close to the woman's face and whispered in her ear.

"What did you do to your children?"