Sara Bishop was raised in Chicago, but her heart belongs in San Francisco, where her childhood sweetheart, Ritchie Temple, has moved to pursue a career in architecture. Convinced he feels the same way for her, she hopes his fiancée, the manipulative Judith Renwick, is just a passing fancy. And now Sara has packed her bags to prove it. Sarah's mother is not only concerned by her daughter's pursuit of an elusive romance, she's also scared of the city itself--and the secret she and Sara's father buried there years ago.

Once Sara arrives on the far side of the Golden Gate, she finds herself in the midst of a tantalizing puzzle involving Ritchie, Judith, and Judith's mysterious brother. She soon discovers a monstrously wicked matriarch nursing a strange and unfathomable vengeance in her Nob Hill mansion. And one fateful morning, when the earth moves and the city is set afire, the pieces of Sara's past will emerge from the ashes--but will it be too late to save her?

A recipient of the Agatha Award for Lifetime Achievement, Phyllis A. Whitney is the acknowledged "Queen of the American gothics" (The New York Times).