While vacationing in Monte Carlo, a young Buffy Summers meets the notorious William de Winter, withdrawn and desolate still from the loss of his wife. When her employer threatens to leave Europe and head back for America, William offers Buffy the choice of leaving or marrying him—a proposal she cannot refuse. With a husband she barely knows, the young bride arrives at an immense estate, only to be drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Drusilla, dead but never forgotten…the suite of her rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant—the sinister Mrs. Wolfram—still loyal. And as an eerie presentiment of evil tightens around her heart, Buffy begins her search through internal destabilization and a knowledge that haunts her with every wake: she can never be Drusilla.