A southern family saga emerges as Nettie begins a quest to discover who she is. Twenty-one year old and Annette Roberta Randall is searching, looking for herself. The perception and sensitivity she relied on to bolster her through an isolated childhood have disappeared and with them her sense of self. Nettie also seeks the truth, information about her dysfunctional family and the mysteries that whisper to her in their eccentric family home. She receives glimpses in the alcohol induced monologues of her mother, Delores Cecelia, "DeCe." However, DeCe lost herself long before Nettie was born, and she buried her secrets so deep, even the spirits haunting her cannot unlock the mysteries. Pup, Nettie's peculiar uncle, may have witnessed the most recent chaos, but he cannot communicate what he knows for sure. Nettie's struggles are apparent to her extended family and neighbors, but only she can resolve to overcome the pull of the infamous Kirkland family and Berclaire mansion. The secrets fester and DeCe clings to them like the neglected ivy tendrils on the shadowed side of the mansion. Slowly, the truth will unfold, but will it be enough to free Nettie, or the undoing of her mother, DeCe? "A glimpse of Old Nate's gnarled hands came to Nettie's mind, a glimpse of something from the past. His hands kneaded each other, rubbing the pain and knots. She had never known her grandfather, yet twenty-one years old, Annette Roberta Randall, and she was thinking about her grandfather's gnarled hands. His memory was tangled in the image of her mother, DeCe. They were knotted together in some unknown history."