Vera Waters comes to Northport Harbor to care for her arthritic, handicapped Aunt Harriet who has come to live in the family's Seacrest Hotel overlooking the rocky cliffs above the Atlantic Ocean. The two neighboring houses on Massachusetts' seacoast of Northport Harbor seem lost in the fog, cut off from the rest of the world. The houses belong to Vera Waters' aunt-and now there is a strange new family who has come to live beside the hotel shrouded in mystery as deep as the fog. Who are the Harpers? Just two men and a woman who, as they claim, like the remote area? If so, why does their first sight of Vera shock them into near silence? And why does Aunt Harriet's astrological readings, usually happy and frequently correct, warn Vera of impending danger? The threat to Vera's sanity and life becomes brutally clear the day a private investigator arrives in town. One of the Harpers, said Detective Eden, was mad, haunted by an ancient murder- and driven to kill again! Vera, equally compelled, finds herself the unwilling bait in a trap more terrifying than her worst imaginings! Will Vera Waters help uncover the mystery of a long, unsolved murder, or will she be trapped in the web of terror that is cast upon the Seacrest Hotel? Finding herself pulled into decaying cellars, a disappearing Thirteenth Floor, and an atmosphere surrounded by New Age spiritualism, will Vera Waters live long enough for the summer season at the Seacrest? Can her lawyer boyfriend, Preston Daly help Vera escape the macabre horror or will Vera become the madman's target of murder in the ancient hotel?