The spirit of an African captive curses the family of the slave-trader who killed her. Generations later, Betty Colt inherits a deserted mansion in Rhode Island. Are her forebears haunting the mansion, or are they the ones being haunted? Betty arrives at the homestead built by wicked George DeWolf, her great, great grandfather, who left the town of Bristol bankrupt in 1825. The little girl who was George's daughter, Theodora, reclaimed the house when she married into the wealthy Colt family. Theodora's son Pomeroy was known as "Twisty" on Wall Street. He rigged his will as a shell game: the last living grandchild would inherit all of his property. Enter Betty, a mature lady of 71. She has misgivings about the legacy. She has felt the presence of spirits there and heard voices, but that hardly prepared her for the vengeful apparition who calls herself Serena. An elderly black woman invites Betty to lunch and they swap stories about the family. Serena claims to be descended from slaves of the DeWolfs. She confounds Betty with her firsthand stories of seafarer Captain Jim and his family known as the Great Ones. She describes Captain Jim's conflict with customs collector William Ellery, an abolitionist. When one of the female slaves came down with smallpox, Captain Jim had her jettisoned. Ellery charged him with murder and he fled to the West Indies. After four years, he was exonerated and returned to rule his empire of banking and shipping. He helped win the War of 1812 with his privateers the Yankee and the MacDonough. Betty blinks and finds herself back at the waterfront. Serena has vanished and Betty suspects her ghostly nature. Guarded by the watchful Eye in the glass dome at the top of the spiral stairs, the restless spirits replay their traumatic scenes, yearning to resolve issues left unresolved. It's up to Betty to put the ghosts of her family to rest and to satisfy the revenge of a murdered woman.