Maud Strand has an idyllic life with her parents in New Orleans, surrounded by family and friends. From childhood, she has had prophetic dreams which benefit Adele, the family housekeeper, who does a little gambling. Maud is in college when she's traumatized by the sudden death of her father in a car accident. She and her mother are paralyzed with grief for a year. Maud begins to feel alienated from her mother, Celia, especially when Celia starts dating a tourist from Montana. When Celia begins talking about remarriage, Maud moves to New York. Maud has a secret, something she can't remember, and this secret is running her life. She's angry, too, because on the day her father died, she believes someone stole his trumpet from the front seat of his car. In New York, Maud meets Lina Sandor, a former physics professor, who makes her living as a psychic under the name Madame Budska. But Madame Budska is no ordinary psychic because her New York clients are a billionaire hedge fund manager, a political kingmaker, a studio head, a TV talk show host, a crazy college professor and other newsmakers. After a few months acquaintance, Lina asks Maud to take over the psychic business while Lina goes away for a couple of weeks on what she calls "the big reveal." Very reluctant at first, Maud finally agrees and begins training for the job. Madame Budska teaches Maud to "listen until you hear" and "look until you see." And as Maud does that, she has powerful dreams that give her deep insight into the emotions and behavior of the influential people she is meeting. What Maud wants is to be able to dream about talking to her dad. It's this desire that leads Maud through a dark tunnel from which she must escape on her own.