In Victorian England it is whispered that the prestigious Blackwell family is touched with paranormal abilities. Eliza knows firsthand that those rumors are true, as she is plagued by wandering spirits, no matter how hard she works to ignore them. As a bastard of the family, she thought she'd succeeded in not only hiding her heritage but repressing the mystical call.
Content with the life she has made for herself as a thief, her world is shattered when she is discovered by her long-lost sister. Desperate to escape the family and her "gift" she agrees to exchange a favor for her sister's silence: she sets out to steal an ornate box from the home of the rumored madman and brilliant inventor Lord Cyril Reeves.
When her plan goes awry Eliza is held prisoner by the eccentric noble. The box is revealed to be the only clue to the disappearance of Cyril's late wife. Eliza is bent on escape but then the ghosts begin to link their deaths to the revolutionary automaton he is working on. She realizes that the only way for her to save him is with the help of the gift she wants no part of.
Cyril awakens a passion within her that she never knew existed. With every inch he gains into her closed-off heart he pushes her toward a power that may blow her mind—literally and figuratively. The more she uses her abilities, the more danger of being lost to the spirit world. At the same time, if she doesn't take the risk she may end up losing Cyril to the madness the ghosts around him are creating.