At a party in Manhattan, Maggie Holloway - one of the fashion world's most successful photographers - is thrilled to be reunited with her beloved stepmother. A widow now, Nuala Moore is equally delighted to see her long-lost stepdaughter and invites Maggie to spend a few weeks at her home in Newport, Rhode Island. But when Maggie arrives, she finds Nuala murdered, apparently by a burglar. Heartbroken, Maggie is stunned to learn she had inherited Nuala's stunning Victorian home... and horrified when she begins to suspect that Nuala's death was not random, but part of a diabolical plot conceived by a twisted mind.

When Nuala's dear old friend Greta Shipley dies suddenly of supoosedly natural causes, Maggie is convinced that there is a link between these two and other recent deaths among the older women of Newport. What she doesn't realize is that she has now become a target for the killer as well, and that each clue she uncovers brings her closer to an unimaginable fate.

In her most chillingly suspenseful novel yet, the queen of suspense delivers a tale of brilliantly sustained terror, woven with the skill and insight into human nature that have made all of Mary Higgins Clark's books major best sellers.