Laurette St. Cyr is the new heiress to Shadow Cove Plantation, inherited from the father she thought dead for twenty years. She arrives in a place called Shadow Bayou outside New Orleans to claim her new home but is beset by a vipers' nest of relatives determined to keep her from staying. They will stop at nothing, murder included, to drive Laurette from Louisiana. Before each planned attack, ghostly visitations from a long-dead ancestor warn Laurette of impending danger, which she initially discounts. Only the family lawyer and Laurette's former nanny seem trustworthy, but she learns even those people harbor secrets from the past-her past. Laurette is courted by the handsome sheriff, Cheyne Delacroix, and his wealthy cousin, Courtland, but soon learns Cheyne was involved in a mysterious death. Now, she has no one to trust. Laurette's life swirls in a gumbo of lies, Voodoo, and deceit, but she is determined to lay claim to the property that is rightfully hers ... or is it?