Ruth Roy, a Wisconsinite in her late sixties, seeks to put the tragedies of her small town past behind her by acquiring a small property and founding a business along with a new life in the Old World before age and decrepitude overtake her. Her new beginning takes a sinister turn, however, when horrific nightmares begin to haunt her and a prophecy - discovered within a tale within an antique journal - has her doubting not only her chances at a new life, but her neighbors and her very sanity. She finds herself searching desperately for a way out of the horrors that threaten to ensnare her; horrors which all began with that tiny little house she acquired, and the mysterious cellar on top of which it was built.