"When genealogist Torie O'Shea gets an invitation from her favorite aunt, Sissy, to come and spend some time with her in Minnesota she jumps at the chance. She piles her husband and her father-in-law into the car, leaving her two daughters in the care of her mother back home in Missouri, and hits the road, looking forward to some relaxation and some family bonding. Once they arrive, Torie finds out that her aunt's invitation was not so innocent: Sissy has uncovered a 150-year-old diary in the attic of her home and is dying to find out who wrote it and where it came from." Certain she won't be able to find anything, Torie reluctantly dives in. She is immediately riveted by the author's story: a young Swedish woman living with her family in 1850s rural Minnesota, she had fallen in love with a man she couldn't have. When the diary ends abruptly with hints of brutal violence, Torie becomes enmeshed in a deadly mystery passed down through generations - and still festering today.