Lovely Margaret Steward is a proud and spirited young lady--too proud to accept the unwilling hospitality of her only living relative. But in strait-laced New Orleans early in the 19th century, there were few means for a respectable young woman to make her own way in the world--which is why Margaret comes as governess to the forbidding Villars mansion.

Given into her charge is a child seemingly possessed by satanic evil. Invading her dreams is the darkly handsome, fierce-tempered man who employs her. And closing in on her are hate and fear and mystery, as the dark abyss of a sinister past opens to receive her.