Jack McCarty has worked hard to put his duel with Armistead Mason in the past. He’s one of Virginia’s brightest young lawyers, married to the love of his life, and poised once again for political stardom --- an opportunity he thought he’d lost when forced to face Armistead on the field of honor. Lucinda Lee also has moved forward, closing the door on the betrayal that almost ended her courtship with Jack. But even as she and Jack begin to build a seemingly charmed life, Lucinda watches the women who fawn over him with suspicion --- and bristles at the brazenness of her sister, Fanny, a hopeless flirt. When a horrible tragedy binds Fanny and Lucinda together in ways they never imagined, and Jack falls prey to a disastrous lapse in judgment, the family struggles to keep scandal at bay.

John “Jack” Mason McCarty and his second cousin, Armistead Mason, are proud sons of the Virginia aristocracy --- and as different as two men can be. Deeply ambitious and politically minded, Armistead has his sights on Congress and demands a level of respect he may not deserve. Jack longs to make a name for himself, if he can stop gambling and drinking long enough to use his considerable wit to his advantage. A poisonous animosity begins to fester between the two men, fueled by political schemes, illicit affairs and scandalous reports in the press. Though the women who love them urge restraint, their bitter dispute nevertheless sets into motion a devastating chain of events that risks much more than their honor.

In Reconstruction-era Baltimore, members of the city’s elite keep turning up dead. When Jane Gray Wharton’s husband, Ned, dies unexpectedly while overnighting at his brother’s home, Jane has no reason to question the circumstances of his death. But on a visit to the same house a few weeks later, both Jane and her daughter fall gravely ill, and Jane begins to suspect foul play. Though a trained chemist and former nurse, Jane is haunted by a history of delusion, loss and institutionalization. As the unexpected and devastating deaths begin to multiply, Jane’s grip on reality starts to slip. When a respected army officer falls terribly ill after visiting the Whartons’ Baltimore home, Jane’s greatest fears become all too real. The time has come to act. But who will believe her? And can she even trust her own mind?

Emily Lloyd, a young widow in Reconstruction-era Virginia, is accused of poisoning her three-year-old daughter, Maud. Her husband and three other children all died of mysterious illnesses, so when Maud succumbs to an unexplained malady, the town suspects foul play. Soon Mrs. Lloyd is charged not only with poisoning the child but also with murdering her children, her husband and her aunt. Enter Powell Harrison, a soft-spoken, brilliant attorney who recently returned to his Virginia hometown to help his brother manage their late father’s practice. As details about the widow’s erratic behavior and her reclusive neighbors emerge, Harrison begins to suspect that an even more sinister truth might lurk beneath the family’s horrible fate and finds himself irresistibly drawn to the case.