Phil and Cindy Murdoch are a wealthy but troubled Chicago couple who visit the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina in search of a dream property on which to build a vacation home. They retain a local Realtor, Elmer Hicks, who brings them to an eighty-acre tract that meets all the criteria on their wish list. But the land is holding a secret. Unbeknownst to either Hicks or the Murdochs, the journeys of their ancestors from Scotland to Ireland, and then to Colonial America ultimately led them to that very same tract. Along the way, the two families became bitter antagonists whose generational struggles played a seminal role in molding both the great American nation and the colorful Appalachian culture. A riveting saga of love and adventure, courage and betrayal, sin and redemption, neither the Chicagoans nor their Realtor know that their familial conflicts were the result of an ancient imprecation known as Murdoch's Curse.