Marion Del Rosario disappeared at age twelve, and no answers ever came. Ten years later, Charlie Louise is still haunted by the empty space in her life that Marion once filled. They were best friends, each other's first loves. She still searches for Marion in the eyes of strangers, trying in vain to escape the gravity of her past. The only things that give her hope anymore are her father, whose sobriety has brought a semblance of stability and comfort; and her friend Adrian, whose kindness she feels she doesn't deserve.

Then Marion reappears as mysteriously as she vanished. Traumatized and afraid, she refuses to talk about what happened to her over the past decade-but it's clear there's more going on behind her reticence. In trying to reconnect with her long lost friend, Charlie unwittingly places herself in the proximity of deep, unimaginable horrors that will forever alter her understanding of reality. Something terrible is reaching out from an aching darkness, bringing strange dreams and alluring promises of deliverance from grief, sorrow, and longing-at a devastating cost.