Essie is the octogenarian obituary writer for her family's small town newspaper. When a young country girl is reported to be missing, perhaps whisked away by an itinerant aerial photographer, Essie stumbles onto the story of her life. Or, it all could be simply a hoax, or a delusion, the child and child-thief invented from the desperate imagination of a lonely, lovelorn woman. Either way, the story of the girl reaches far and wide, igniting controversy,...

Connecticut reporter Paul Tomm, assigned to write an obituary for local professor Jaan Puhapaev, decides there is more to the story when the coroner examining Puhapaev's body also dies, and becomes involved in a centuries-old mystery that leads him to a criminal cadre linked to a legendary alchemical text.