As a child, Gemma lost her parents in a fire - a tragic accident still haunting her as an adult. Her reclusive life in New York is suddenly thrown out of kilter when she receives mail from an anonymous sender: lines of a Victorian poem and a piece of antique jewelry.

With the help of charismatic Oxford professor Sisley Ryland-Bancroft, Gemma sets out to trace the sender - a journey taking her across two continents and placing herself in danger. For without realizing it, she is about to uncover a secret guarded for centuries.

A secret that could also be the key to her own past …