Her mother once lay at the bottom of the stairs with a broken neck. Her father now stands behind a pulpit.

Abigail has spent years trying to find a place between the two, but now, a letter from her grandmother has destroyed all her beliefs about where she is meant to fit in the world. The man she knows as her father, it says, is not. The step missed in the dark, the unhappy accident that took her mother from her, was not. Her real father was a man who died before she was born, and her mother was killed to keep the secret of the jealous rivalry and supernatural power that caused his death.

That power still resides in the forest nearby, and will still lend itself to those who cannot settle their grievances alone. Now, Abigail must decide if she will be one of those-if she will find her peace on human terms or offer up her conscience to the creature that killed her true father and claim revenge, not only for him, but for her silenced mother and the life she might have had with them both.