Manchester, 1997. Successful author David Hodges struggles to start his second novel while his girlfriend Moira Frost works as a fashion photographer. Their mutual friend Kathy Dodson is a journalist investigating wealthy entrepreneur Sir Kenneth Morrison, who is trying to close a deal to convert the Abacus Hotel into a huge casino. But Morrison is being haunted by something nasty...These lives and others intersect at the mysterious Abacus Theatre, a place that no one can find, where a play called The Spirits of Winter is due to be performed. A crime from the past is about to be repeated and old ghosts awakened. As the Spirits converge upon wintery Manchester, the stage is set for vengeance.