A chilling and mysterious voice becomes audible to Sanie shortly after she and her husband Jackson move into the decaying antebellum mansion that is the Bullard ancestral home in rural South Carolina. At first, she wonders if the voice might be a prank played by Jackson's peyote-popping brother Will or his equally off-kilter sister Louise.

But soon Sanie discovers that the ghostly voice is merely a single piece of the decadent, baroque puzzle that comprises the Bullard family history, rank with sensuality, violence, repression and madness.