Eleanor Stubb is a disturbed young woman.

 

When released from The Grinding Sanatorium for the Delusional, she still believes that her deceased son lives
in the shadows. 

 

Eleanor and her husband move to the decaying manor house owned by her father-in-law, Theodore, in the sleepy village of Muchmarsh. Often found in the attic amongst his extensive collection of insects, Theodore is also a master hypnotist, using a remarkable pocket watch. Soon, the boundary between danger and safety blurs. After Theodore’s unforgivable act of using the watch for his wicked intentions, Eleanor becomes pregnant. Intrigue, murder, and madness follow in its wake.

 

And thirteen years later, Eleanor's teenage son, Alastair, becomes possessed by Theodore's malevolent spirit, unleashing a chilling chain of events across the village. But how can a pocket watch and a collection of dead insects cause so much astonishment and destruction? When the mystery unfolds, dark secrets are revealed. Can Alastair finally escape the evil possession and heal the wounds of the past?​