Widowed and without grandchildren, the loneliness becomes crippling for children's illustrator Beverly Vernon. So she begins a portrait of the ideal granddaughter, who is blonde, violet-eyed and smiling.

Until she uncovers the bones of a young child in her back garden. Then Beverly's painting changes of its own accord; the girl's smiling expression turns grim. As Beverly endeavours to identify the child and how it died, her sanity is tested to the limit. While hunting for the truth in a dark past, Beverly risks everything in her present.