Set in 1880 this is the story of a house that refused to die. The story begins on a train where head strong Betty Lou and quiet and demure Mary Ann, two young sisters, are traveling to Virginia to spend the summer with their aunt Hattie and Judge Uncle Thurman's. While out riding on Tully's ridge Betty Lou is surprised to see a house that wasn't there the last time they rode by. Mary Ann didn't see the house and aunt Hattie told them they couldn't have seen the house because it hasn't been there for may years.

The sisters were soaked to the skin in the rain and Betty Lou caught the death of a cold but the death that waits lurking to be caught will not be from the common cold but from something much more uncommon.