Reagan Broussard's fairytale life takes an ominous turn when she is suddenly plagued by nightmares. Reared in the hills of Kentucky, she believes the dreams are a portent of things to come. Bad things. Desperate for answers, she travels home to Appalachia to consult with a wise woman named Sarah Dean, but the answers she gets are unwelcome and frightening. Her firstborn, Miranda, is in danger.

As Reagan undertakes the perilous journey home to St. Louis, her husband Jackson struggles to deal with two precocious children amid the turmoil of the panic of 1837. His family's fortune is gone, and his invalid father is seeing ghosts and insists that his villainous brother Navarre has returned, seeking revenge. Little does Jackson know, that his father is right.