Six years ago, Gwynn Forest's husband Richard committed suicide. After that, she struggled to keep things together, emotionally, mentally, and financially. Then three fortuitous things happened: she sold the family construction company; she inherited a seaside cottage from an elderly English great-aunt whom she had never met, and she was offered a job illustrating a book for a friend. Thus, a new start in a new place. Once ensconced in Gull Cottage, she begins to learn disturbing things about her great-aunt and her new home. The cottage itself seems unwelcoming, perhaps haunted by the imprint of a sad and lonely old woman, with peculiar noises, strange happenings, and a back garden full of untamable brambles, no matter how much they are cut back. Gwynn doesn't believe in ghosts—until the disturbing occurrences at Gull Cottage change her mind. Gwynn doesn't believe in herself—until, with no one else to turn to she has to rely on her own inner resources to confront the mysteries of Gull Cottage.