For years Kiera Scruggs has envisioned herself a staunch defender of social causes and women's rights. Her self-image contrasts with the reality of the past where she served prison time for helping kill the wife of her former lover. Details of her crime are ones she has kept from her grown children all their lives.

An inheritance from Kiera's indulgent late father has helped provide her family a comfortable –if quite insulated- lifestyle. When Kiera's son Rory is delayed on a visit to Kentucky she begins to suspect something is wrong. She pays a visit to a fortune teller to inquire if Rory is safe and when he will be returning? The fortune teller only provides an ominous warning, one Kiera finds infuriatingly absurd. She decides to take matters into her own hands in order to get Rory home by petitioning for help from the ancient Gaelic goddess worshiped by her paternal grandmother. This dark and forbidding deity demands fearlessness and an unfaltering disavowal for conventional ethics. To those willing to prove their devotion the crone offers the fulfillment of any petition.