The year is 1796, and a trading ship arrives in the vibrant trading town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. But it's a ghost ship-her entire crew has been decimated by a virulent fever that sweeps through the harbor town, and Newburyport's residents start to fall ill and die with alarming haste.

As the epidemic grows, fear, greed, and unhinged obsession threaten the Sumner family-and the future of Newburyport itself.