The much-married Madeleine Harrod is a beautiful and talented woman obsessed with death. She sees things no one else sees. As one of the best forensic artists in the country, she visualizes the face of an unidentified skull before anyone else can. She owns Appledorn Exploratorium, which makes spooky scientific toys for a global market. Her oil paintings of dead people -- haunting and expensive -- sell nationally. Despite her success, Madeleine is troubled. She hasn't been her old self since, at the age of eleven during a picnic at the Dunes, she tried to rescue a girlfriend carried away by a riptide. Her psychiatrist and old-world beau, Dr. Beltrami, is more Svengali than healer. She suffers from nightmares and sleepwalking and believes she has lived many other lives. And then, at the peak of Madeleine's success, a strange man in yachting clothes begins following her, mysteriously appearing where he's least wanted. "Captain Ahab" threatens to reveal a secret about the accident at the Dunes. Though Madeleine carries the marks of his violence on her wrist, no one else believes he exists -- until he murders another of Madeleine's childhood friends. One by one, the people closest to Madeleine are found dead. Can the illusory Captain Ahab be stopped before he kills again?