A woman searching for the mother she never knew uncovers a danger that's been waiting thirty-one years for her return-and it will do anything to keep her quiet.
Vera Redmond spends her days in New York City transcribing courtroom drama, until a single notification turns her own life into one. A DNA match through HeritageTrace pulls her from the chaos of Queens to the quiet town of Ashcombe, Pennsylvania. As she searches for answers about the mother she never knew, she's met with contradictions about who Emmaline Whitlow was.
Some remember Emmaline as strange and withdrawn, nicknamed "Witchy Whitlow" after claiming to experience things inside the family's Victorian home. Others use the moniker as an accusation, believing she was tied to local tragedies-including a fatal hit-and-run just weeks before she gave up her infant daughter for adoption and skipped town.
Now, staying in the Whitlow house, Vera retraces her mother's steps through a home that doesn't quite feel empty, and a town that refuses to agree on the truth.