On a desolate road in the Oregon high desert, an apprentice mortician stumbles upon a horrific car crash--and into a vortex of treachery, long-buried secrets, and growing menace. Melisende Dulac is a fish out of water after relocating from the East Coast to a small community in the Oregon high desert. But just as she´s beginning to think of Barlow County as home, her life takes an ominous turn when she comes upon a grisly multiple car wreck and three shattered bodies on an isolated road outside of town. Near the scene, Melisende trips over a fourth body, that of a newborn girl lying a physics-defying distance from the wreckage. There is no one to claim the infant, nor a clear indication she was even part of the accident. The crash offers plenty of opportunities for an apprentice mortician--but when the victims´ bodies are stolen from her family´s mortuary, Melisende is branded suspect number one. Then, Portland lawyer Kendrick Pride arrives on the scene on behalf of one of the victim´s families--or so he says--and Melisende begins to see that there´s much more to this enigmatic figure than meets the eye. As the shadows gather and the mystery deepens, Melisende must race to find the truth--or be swallowed by the darkness.