Having been raised by a Tarot reader, Rowena Wickerson has always felt that her mother's work is a scam. Valuing true, empirical data, she finds it difficult to believe in the metaphysical world. Wanting to learn more about the Civil War, Rowena sets out to find work on the east coast. When the twenty-one-year-old historian's car is struck by lightning on her way to Salem, Massachusetts, she is thrown headfirst into a secret world and a centuries-long war that may be impossible to win.