The women of the Whitney family of Salem, Massachusetts can see the future in a piece of lace. But the youngest of them, “Towner” (Sophya) had run away from her abilities and her hometown following her twin sister’s death and her own confinement in a psychiatric hospital, where she received shock treatment after claiming to have killed her violent “uncle” Cal Boynton. She returns fifteen years later when her beloved great-aunt Eva disappears, and circumstances seem set to keep her there until she (and the reader) can solve the mysteries of her past. This unusual, somewhat gothic, novel combines suspenseful action with insightful exploration of characters.