The footsteps descending the stairs grew fainter, and the voices became muffled. Moments later there came a cacophony of crashing wood, cascading heavy grey dust, and thousands of pages of books not read since long ago flapping like pigeons’ wings as they plummeted.

In the darkness of the cellar, bones were crushed under the weight of the stone that had cracked and fallen.

There is no sound now, just the silence of a forsaken place where no welcome awaits.

The time has finally arrived. He has come home at last.

The web of secrets in the Radcliffe family was as tangled as the ivy around the front door of Bellwood.

 In 1995, the two-hundred-year-old English manor house known as Bellwood is close to being put up for sale when Fred Radcliffe invites his younger cousin Kate Walford, a magazine writer, and her husband Michael, a home renovation expert, for a visit. Fred wants Michael to fix up the house before he puts it on the market. Kate and Michael drive up from London on a summer afternoon with their two small children, Christian and Chloe. Kate is thrilled to be back after not seeing Bellwood since she was a kid, and all her old memories of the house and the holidays she spent there with her relatives come flooding back.

 While Michael is putting together a renovation estimate, Kate delves into exploring the house again. In the attic, she finds a cryptic note written by Elizabeth Bell Radcliffe, the early 1800's matriarch of the Radcliffe family, to a man named Julian Sinclair. While Fred is known as the "family historian", Kate now wants to dive into the Radcliffe family history.

 Soon after their arrival, the Walfords experience strange sensations and occurrences at Bellwood, and they start to suspect the house is haunted. A seance with a friend of Fred's wife Pauline allays their fears. Then staying alone at Bellwood to write an article about the house while Michael and the children go to visit his sister, Kate experiences more ghostly encounters as buried memories return. Meanwhile, she finds a journal belonging to Elizabeth Bell Radcliffe that contains shocking family secrets.

Tess is single, thirty-seven, and has had multiple sclerosis for seven years. Recently she's had to stop working and begin using a cane. She's also been having a recurring dream that seems to be mocking her single status and her failed relationships with men. She broke up with her last boyfriend because he was panicked by her diagnosis. Since then she's gradually given up trying to navigate the dating scene with her condition, and she's begun to think she's less physically attractive now that MS has slowed her down.
Enter Austin, a 32-year-old grocery employee and law student who helps her recently widowed mother with yard work. When Tess meets him she's instantly attracted, and the two soon seem to have a budding friendship.
Troubled by her dream, Tess decides that rather than a relationship, she just needs the physical part to boost her feelings of desirability. Her mom thinks she needs to talk to a counselor, but Tess has another idea. She sets in motion a plan to "get" Austin - or rather to get him to sleep with her.
She enlists the help of her married younger sister Emily, who tells Austin that Tess wants him to ask her out, which is not what Tess wanted. The whole plan goes downhill fast as Tess ends up "hanging out" with Austin, who isn't picking up on her romantic signals, causing Tess to throw in the towel. Emily criticizes Tess for her handling of her relationships over the years, and Tess becomes sullen, wishing she could talk to her father, who always gave her sage advice.
            But Tess soon learns that attraction isn't so biased, and that like MS, love is unpredictable.

Nine dark stories -

“The Shadow Orphans” – A vacant old house shrouded in mystery serves as a playground for three curious children, with dire consequences.
“The Mortician’s Son” - While working in his family’s funeral home, Tristan sees his peculiar fascination with death fade as he falls in love with the girl who works at the coffee house across the street.
“The Psychedelic Hotel” – Amateur photographer PJ encounters a group of ghosts in an abandoned hotel, and an important part of his past is revealed.
“Unfinished Business” – A dead man takes a holiday from the grave existing as a zombie, ghost, and living man.
“Evil Creatures” – In this romantic tale set in 19th-century England, as an unusual girl named Jane matures, she develops skills that help thwart a doctor's insidious plan.
“Arbitrary Lives” – After her little girl’s death, grieving young mother Brielle follows her ghost into the past and the future, but who are the people she sees there?
“Claustrophobia” – While braving his fear to join a protest, Tariq encounters a mysterious old foe.
“The Curse of the Maclellans” – In nineteenth-century Scotland, Glendice falls under both a witch’s romantic spell and then his actual one. 
“A Chalice of Blood” – After Anne Marie joins a convent, she learns something shocking about a priest and a nun who are guests of its affiliated church.

Eight stories of love, loss, and fate -

"Happenstance" - A tale of love, fate, and coincidence.

"Homework" - Teachers and students deal with the aftermath of a school shooting.

"The Hollows" - A vampire recalls the loves of his life while dealing with his adversary.

"Harbinger" - Past and present collide when a man buys an old building.

"Clotilde" - A jazz musician in the 1950's has an affair that leads to murder.

"Mrs. Summers' Daughters" - Two young British men find love in America in 1910.

"The Last of the Royal Line" - A woman grapples with a family secret.

"The House on West 100th Street" - A boy coming of age learns he and his siblings all have a mysterious past.