Tessa deGroot, a sculptor, falls in love at the first sight of Ardenwycke, a great stone house along the Hudson River in New York. Part of a divorce settlement from her former husband's family, the house was built by an early deGroot settler more than two hundred years earlier, but still carries a reputation of being cursed. Tessa discovers this for herself on that first visit as she faints in one upstairs hallway. Maximillian MacDougall, a local housing inspector, rescues Tessa that day, but more strange events happen almost immediately after she moves in. Together, Tessa and Max try to find the meaning behind the curious things that happen in the house, but it will surely take drastic measures as well as love to succeed.