A leaf-stained skull and the decomposed knitted vest of a child are discovered during a logging operation in Northern California's last virgin redwood forest - a grove of thousand-year-old trees ominously called Wailing Wood. There, the ghostly echoes of children's voices, amid the distant calls of owls, have been heard by generations of families living in the nearby logging town of Whitesboro. Textile forensics consultant Ruth M, known to law enforcement as "the Yarn Woman," is called in by the county sheriff and site archaeologist to evaluate the fabric remnants. Her investigation unearths a double murder that occurred a hundred years before, and the physical evidence eerily echoes a local ghost story about Wailing Wood. ... Is the tragic tale destined to repeat itself? The Yarn Woman is accompanied to Whitesboro and to Wailing Wood by newspaperman Nat Fisher; Mr. Kasparov, her guardian and companion since childhood; and San Francisco Police Detective William Chu.