To overcome the emotional scars of her own past, Vanessa Fullerton recounts her mother Serena's extraordinary life - and tragic death. Serena marries a dashing U.S. colonel, relinquishing her family's fortune. When her husband dies, an impoverished Serena struggles to care for her young daughter until noted photographer Vasili catapults Serena to fame. But Vasili hides a dangerous secret, a secret that leaves a painful legacy.
Roger Cobb is an author who has just separated from his wife. He moves into a new house and tries to work on a novel based on his experiences in the Vietnam War. Strange things start happening around him; little things at first, but as they become more frequent, Cobb becomes aware that the house resents his presence.
A fictional drama, covering a 30-year period, about a poverty-stricken teenager forced to give up her illegitimate son at birth, and the climb to wealth and power as the wife of a newspaper publisher who helps her locate her son, in whose future she becomes obsessed.