When Corinne meets the handsome, enigmatic Julian Thorne, nothing - including her aunt's misgivings - can deter her from eagerly accepting his proposal of marriage. Lured by the promise of an idyllic life as Mistress of Thornehaven, Corinne leaves London and travels with her new husband to his ancestral manor on the rocky cliffs of coastal New England. Upon their arrival, the young bride's enchantment dissolves into desolation. The sinister-looking estate appears to rise up out of the thick sea mist that blankets the bleak and craggy landscape. Even more disturbing is the tense atmosphere that permeates within its fortress like walls. Of utmost concern, is the strange relationship that exists between Julian and his 15-year old daughter, Julianna. The raven-haired beauty is the living embodiment of her mother, Anna, for whom Julian still grieves. Comparatively plain, Corinne struggles to overcome the jealousy she sees reflected in the girl's emerald eyes. Covertly and cleverly mocked by her new stepdaughter, Corinne refuses to suffer in silence, only to discover that her blatant criticism of Julian's only child creates a rift between the two of them that only worsens her feelings of insecurity. Alice, Anna's reclusive twin sister, becomes Corinne's sole ally in the hellish household. Hideously disfigured in a childhood accident, she takes the troubled bride under her wing and eventually divulges a secret so shocking that Corinne decides she must flee Thornehaven at once and never return. When an unexpected pregnancy keeps her ensnared in the house's menacing grip, Corinne is more vulnerable than ever to the evil that lurks in the shadows. Beginning with Thornehaven's first bride in 1869, every former mistress of the manor has met with untimely and tragic ends. Now someone - or something - is determined to see that its newest bride stays true to that century-old family tradition.