Burdened by spring floods, malaria and yellow fever, citizens of old New Orleans often turned to voodoo practitioners—African Rosalie, Sanite Dede, Bras Coupe—for protection. None were more powerful, or feared, than Doctor John and Marie Laveau. After paranormal private investigator Wyatt Thomas sees a ghost during a hospital visit, he tells his sometimes business partner voodoo mambo Mama Mulate about the encounter. She trances Wyatt and channels the ghost, soon learning a curse connects him and a long-dead French aristocrat. They are doomed to remain connected forever unless Wyatt can time-travel to old New Orleans and lift the curse before midnight on New Year's Eve. Once there, his only hope is to seek the assistance of voodoo queen Marie Laveau. This metaphysical thriller mystery features ghosts, ghouls, curses, and duels to the death, along with the search for Louis Armstrong's lost cornet.