When psychic Tess Hamilton's husband literally tosses her to the curb in New York City, she soon after experiences an anaphylactic reaction to a pill that transports her to another dimension. During that interlude, Tess views large segments of her past-life, in tandem, as a spectator and from the first person perspective of Abigail Cantrell, a young woman struggling to survive the Civil War. Among the revelations is that Tess essentially married the same husband twice, and, in both incarnations, got trapped between a father and son in conflict. Tess flees to the posh horse country of Middleburg, Virginia to recover. Retaining some of Abigail's traits and talents, and urged on by a ghostly intervention, Tess teams up with an historian to resolve a murder mystery that occurred a century ago. When her polo-playing former beau Conrad Winslow-shows up in Middleburg, Tess desperately tries to resolve her past-life to secure her future with Conrad. With her vengeful ex-father-in-law, now determined to kill her, the clues Tess retrieved during her Near-Death Experience hold the key for her survival-if only Tess can decipher the enigma in time.