When pretty, popular, sixteen-year-old Cindy Band returns from a party late one night, she finds her luxurious home in the wealthy Long Island community of Old Westbury teeming with police. Her mother lies dead at the bottom of the basement stairs, supposedly the victim of an accidental fall, yet suspicious clues hint to a more evil, murderous plot.
Devastated by the loss of her mother and the inconclusive police investigation, Cindy turns to her controlling father for support but finds she is all alone in her grief. Before long, Cindy begins to see signs that he is not the grieving husband he ought to be. Though Cindy is torn apart by the growing suspicions she harbours about her father's role in her mother's death, she feels she must go to the lead detective in the case.
Together, Cindy and Detective Sharkey gather evidence. When her father learns that she is helping the police, he is angry and adamantly denies his guilt. Cindy is son beset by new terrors as she becomes the target of a series of dangerous and insidious real-life nightmares.
