A family secret not believed by Detective Miller, and cannot be explained by Lilly Bombay, a hermit who lives in the swampy region of Louisiana bayous. Her daughter, Vale, who sees the same gruesome scene but cannot quite deal with the guilt, runs away from home. Until twenty-two years later, and a hundred miles away at a college campus, where Lilly's granddaughter, Iris Bombay sees the same types of visions but will not suppress them anymore. She allows her vision to take her to a house basement, in which she may not return.