When diphtheria swept through the streets of Elkhorn, Montana, it left a trail of grief. Carissa woke from her comma, to find herself a childless widow. That is when the darkness overtook her. The accident she had while gardening was minor, but oh, what a glorious relief it was to her mental pain. She now needed to free herself from her secret ritual. Carissa hoped becoming a mother to a widower's three children might release her from the whispers of the demons that invaded her mind. Frank Martin, like herself, suffered his own torments after the death of his wife and was not in search of a lover. Theirs would be a marriage of convenience. Can two people, so filled with pain, find happiness? And with who?