Emma Truesdale, flamboyant and fashionable, follows an inner call to return to her somewhat fey but sturdy sister, Alice, at the family’s Manse in Virginia. The two have always grounded each other. But will this be a real honeymoon or is the house an unofficial inheritance from aloof parents now figuring to test their daughters’ obvious romantic direction?

For Alice, 26, life has become complicated after her season as governess/tutor to 12-year-old twins, girls whose household was already under the threat of something quietly monstrous. When tragedy strikes, perhaps only teenage David can grasp the katabasis that grants Alice a brief supernatural dispensation to dramatically expose a murderous sect. But vindication means little to her. Even Emma, her devoted sister, cannot fully explain why Alice leaves such a mark on those who encounter her.

This modern tale of gothic intimacies, by turns whimsical and uncanny, is told through shifting voices, poetic interludes, and an enigmatic hostess-narrator. It is ultimately an exploration of maturity and individuality, taboo in the modern age, and the strange worlds people create around “Home.”