After losing her two beloved great-aunts in a car accident, small-town librarian Elaine Colemar discovers a skeleton key in their antiques store. When she reads the foreign phrase engraved on it, the key's imprint burns into her hand. Clearly Elaine's stress is getting to her-her aunts are dead, she's drowning in debt, each contact with the key leaves her disoriented-and now she's seeing things ... right?

After meeting with Edmund Wallace, an esteemed professor and the director of a local history museum, Elaine seizes an opportunity to rid herself of the key-and alleviate her financial woes-by selling it to him for a generous sum. It is only when the key and Professor Wallace go missing that Elaine learns about her aunts' connection to an ancient Apothecary's Guild and the story of the five keys, which are portals to mystical places.

Knowing she must finish the task her aunts started, Elaine sets off to locate the missing source key before dark purposes prevail.