Emma Byrd is happy to accompany her older cousin, Pat, to their mothers' ancestral home in the South Carolina Low Country. As summer jobs go, typing, editing and researching material for her cousin's proposed book on low country myths and legends beats flipping burgers. The antebellum homestead is a perfect setting, too, offering peace, tranquility, and plenty of motivation in which to work. Emma does not know her Carolina relatives very well and wonders why her mother kept her brother and her away from this side of the family. The tragic accident that took the life of her older cousin, Felicity-Pat's dearest friend-happened over twenty years ago, so that can't have anything to do with her mother's reticence in visiting her childhood home. Aunt Faith and Uncle Loyal are both dears and Emma is sure the summer will pass quickly. However, after only a few days in the isolated mansion, wedged between a swamp and a jungle of vegetation, Emma's enthusiasm wanes. Something just isn't right but she can't put her finger on it. When she voices her concerns to her cousin, Pat only scoffs and puts it down to an over-active imagination. Yet strange things are happening; odd things appear in places where they shouldn't be. When Emma is awakened by a dark figure in her room, she is convinced it isn't her imagination. Someone walks the halls after dark, laughing and sighing. Someone who shouldn't be there.