Fierce and frosty high achiever Professor Sonja J. Storey is on the verge of seizing power in her department. She has exacting plans to remake her backwoods North Carolina university, just as she has painstakingly remade herself. Sonja's perfectly ordered life takes a dramatic turn when she meets laid-back, magnetic junior professor Crystal Byrd. But then come threatening notes, sinister emails, and shadowy nocturnal figures, and suddenly, Sonja's controlled world starts to tremble like a butterfly in a storm. Is someone out to get her? Is it a specter from Sonja's past? It's hard not to be suspicious of everyone, even intoxicating Crystal with her temptingly warm presence. Seeing danger everywhere, Sonja must hunt down the source of the chaos before she loses her brilliant mind, and her chance at the one thing she's never known-love.