Content Warning: The source text includes depictions of sexual assault, statutory rape, and violence.

The narrative opens where the preceding book, The Hawthorne Legacy, left off: Avery Kylie Grambs, 17, is still living in Hawthorne House, the mansion left to her by philanthropist Tobias Tattersall Hawthorne. Tobias’s will stipulated that, for Avery to claim his inheritance, she must live in Hawthorne House for a full year. The deadline is almost up. Avery has been living in Hawthorne House, unraveling the puzzles Tobias left behind. Even now, she continues to discover the House’s secrets: “I could almost imagine the ghost of Tobias Hawthorne watching me as I knelt and ran my hand over the mahogany floorboards, my fingers searching for irregularities in the seams” (1).

Chapter 1 opens with Avery’s lawyer, Alisa Ortega, asking about her 18th birthday plans. Alisa suggests a big party in line with the PR image they’ve created for Avery: a rags-to-riches story. Alisa always tells Avery: “Everyone loves a Cinderella story” (4). Avery tells Alisa she doesn’t want a big party. The Hawthorne grandsons, Alexander Blackwood Hawthorne (“Xander”) and Nash Westbrook Hawthorne, interrupt Alisa and Avery’s conversation.