Fourteen-year-old Mary Lanham lives an unremarkable life in an unremarkable small town, until the day a man in a long, gray cloak creeps out of the forest, and a centuries-old mystery begins to unfold. What is the terrible secret Mary's father is hiding, a secret that has put both of their lives in danger? What is the truth about Mary's past that has awakened a great evil? And how can she win the heart of the boy she loves when the whole world is falling apart?