Like an old-fashioned Gothic tale. Suspenseful, and good at changing "voice" as various sections of the book are told by different characters. The ending was not quite as strong as the rest of the book, but still very good overall. Constance Langton lost her little sister Alma when Alma was quite young. Her mother never recovers from the grief, and her father is emotionally distant and uninvolved with the family. As Constance becomes a young woman, she takes her mother to a seance, hoping it will help with her grief. It appears Constance may have some psychic abilities, although she is skeptical that it's only a scam. In any case, her mother is so impressed with making contact with baby Alma, that she kills herself that night, in an effort to reunite you with Alma sooner than later. This precipitates the break-up of the household. Constance goes through a series of residences, ending up with an uncle on her mother's side. She wonders if she was adopted, since her mother could never overcome her grief over Alma to connect with Constance, and her father seemed never to have any interest in her.A solicitor arrives on the scene with news of an inheritance of a decrepit property, possibly haunted. Constance then reads a series of narratives of the Wraxfords, who she is related to. She attempts to solve the mystery of the Wraxfords, immersing her further in the world of psychics, etc.