Agnes Corey, a junior editor at a small independent publisher, has been hired by enigmatic author Veronica St. Clair to transcribe the sequel to her 1993 hit phenomenon, The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. St. Clair has been a recluse since the publication of the JANE EYRE-esque book, which coincided with a terrible fire that blinded and scarred her. Agnes arrives in the Hudson Valley at her crumbling estate, which was once a psychiatric hospital for “wayward women.” As St. Clair dictates, Agnes realizes there are clues in the story that reveal the true --- and terrifying --- events three decades ago that inspired the original novel. The line between fact and fiction becomes increasingly blurred, and Agnes discovers terrible secrets about an unresolved murder from long ago, which have startling connections to her own life.

It’s been 25 years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. Now, the president of Briarwood College is bringing together faculty, donors and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago. Guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemorative event. But as a storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates. When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize that someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past.

Lucy Harper still has traumatic memories and lingering health problems from the 2020 pandemic. So, when a new virus surfaces years later, she and her husband, Reed, seek refuge on his family’s private island off the coast of Maine. Ostensibly safely sequestered with their five closest friends and family, Lucy should feel at ease. So why does she feel the weight of the island’s dark history pushing down on the group? As Lucy uncovers Reed’s family secrets and the island’s history as a quarantine hospital for typhus patients, she becomes obsessed with the past and feels her own grip on reality slipping. Tempers flare, strange signs appear in the woods, and accidents turn deadly. Is the island haunted by the dead? Or is someone amongst the living taking their revenge?

Joan Lurie has written a seething article exposing a notorious newspaper tycoon as a sexual predator. But after getting brutally attacked on the night it goes live, she moves into a highly secure apartment in Manhattan called the Refuge. Joan should be safe here, so how can she explain the cryptic incidents that are happening? Lillian Day is Joan’s new 96-year-old neighbor at the Refuge. In 1941, Lillian witnessed a murder that sent her into hiding, and she hasn’t come out since. Melissa Osgood has burning questions about her husband’s recent death. When she discovers a suspicious paper trail that he left behind, she realizes how little she knew about her marriage. As their lives intersect, each woman must stay one step ahead of those who are desperate to make sure the truth is never uncovered.

Tess has worked hard to keep her past buried. Now she’s the wife to a respected professor at an elite boarding school, where she also teaches. Her 17-year-old son, Rudy, whose dark moods and complicated behavior she’s long worried about, seems to be thriving. But one morning she gets a text from Rudy, asking for help. When she picks him up, she finds him drenched and shivering, with a dark stain on his sweatshirt. Four hours later, Tess learns that Lila Zeller, Rudy’s girlfriend, has been found dead on the beach, not far from where she found Rudy just hours before. As the investigation into Lila’s death escalates, Tess finds her family attacked on all sides. What first seemed like a tragic accidental death is turning into something far more sinister.

Alice gets off a bus in the middle of a snowstorm in Delphi, NY. She is fleeing an abusive relationship and desperate to protect 10-year-old Oren, a major Star Wars fan who is wise beyond his years. Though Alice is wary, Oren bonds nearly instantly with Mattie, a social worker who brings them home for the night. She has plenty of room, she says. What she doesn't say is that Oren reminds her of her little brother, who died 30 years ago at the age of 10. But Mattie isn't the only one withholding elements of the truth. Alice is keeping her own secrets. And as the snowstorm worsens around them, each woman's past will prove itself unburied, stirring up threats both within and without.

When Jess and Clare Martin move from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to their former college town in the Hudson River valley, they are hoping for rejuvenation --- of their marriage, their savings, and Jess' writing career. They take a caretaker's job at Riven House, a crumbling estate and the home of their old college writing professor. But there is a haunting pall that hangs over Riven House like a funeral veil. Soon, Clare begins to hear babies crying at night and see strange figures in fog at the edge of their property. Diving into the history of the area, she realizes that Riven House has a dark and anguished past. And whatever this thing is --- this menacing force that destroys the inhabitants of the estate --- it seems to be after Clare next.

Nan Lewis, a creative writing professor, hits a deer while driving home from a faculty holiday party. But when she gets out of her car to look for it, the deer is nowhere to be found. The next morning, Nan is informed that one of her students was killed in a hit-and-run the night before. And because of the damage to her car, Nan is a suspect. In the days following the accident, Nan finds herself shunned by the same community that rallied around her when her own daughter was killed in an eerily similar accident. When she begins to find disturbing tokens that recall the death of her daughter, Nan suspects that the two accidents are connected.