Esme Lennox is a dreamy, bookish young woman, the kind of girl who stares and listens and won't flirt with boys. And then, in the space of a moment, she disappears. Years later, a stunning phone call breaks the silence at Iris Lockhart's vintage shop: her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital after sixty-one years. Iris's grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child, but Esme's papers prove she is Kitty's sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in her face. Still, she's basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, sure to bring life-altering secrets when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit?