In 1906, the murder of Grace Brown rocked the nation. It was considered the trial of the century, capturing the imaginations of people coast to coast after a skirt factory worker, Grace Brown, was found dead in Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks of New York. Her lover, Chester Gillette, nephew of the owner of the Gillette Skirt Factory, was found to be the main suspect. His motive?he did want to deal with the pregnancy of an unwed worker that would hold him back on his attempt to climb up the social ladder.
Journalist Charlie Baxter hopes to discover what happened that fateful night. His research takes him to the former home of Judge Ward, the prosecutor in the Gillette case. While there, Charlie finds himself haunted by the ghost of Chester Gillette. When a scream in the night pulls him from his room and across the hall to another patron in the bed and breakfast, he'll be stunned to meet Katherine Grace Brown, a woman who shares the name of the murder victim from the historic case. Charlie wonders what her connection could be. He doesn't believe in coincidences.
Katherine Brown is tortured by nightmares - both sleeping and waking. No matter the circumstances, the dreams are of the same man and woman in a boat on a summer's night. What frightens her more is that she resembles the woman and can feel her terror the moment she falls overboard. She struggles to the surface, reaching out, calling, "Chester!" just before she drowns. Katherine understands the terror, on the run from her past and an abusive ex. She finds herself at the B&B on Ward's Pond hoping to find peace, but instead finds herself pulled into an old murder case...and the arms of the handsome journalist, Charlie Baxter. Their attraction is powerful, but the tragic story of Grace and Chester has an even stronger pull.