Daphne Lindstrom, the beautiful young wife of Red Gap's most prominent citizen, vanished mysteriously not long after her unhappy marriage. More than a century later, botany student Ben Platt finds himself laid up in the former redwood logging town, now reborn as a tourist destination, thanks to a novel based on Daphne's story. But theories on her fate are not the only things to survive. For generations Daphne has haunted the men of one family, driving them to obsession and disaster. When she appears to Ben, he must decide whether to answer her call for help, and at what cost.