Maya Reid, 24, tries to make a new life in Florida while attending law school and keeping to herself as best as possible. She appears sane, but she often speaks to the Grim Reaper because of a mood disorder that makes her volatile and a danger to herself. She vows never to go back to Maryland after spending time in prison for a crime she did not commit. Unfortunately, a phone call about the suicide of her estranged mother pulls her back to the last place she wants to call home. Upon arrival, she attends the funeral. But after obtaining and reading the first repulsive entry of Jan's journal, Maya realizes her mother is not all who she seemed to be. Maya must encounter old classmates, other distant and more ominous family members, and shifty characters who come to her aid while trying to solve the disturbing mystery of her mother's death and make peace with the matriarch's twisted past.