Sephronia Hill has spent most of her 85 years in Dark Hollow, Tennessee. A herbal healer, the local Granny Woman, Sephie forages medicinal herbs in the Appalachian foothills around her home making tinctures and salves. A peaceful way of life if you don't count her prickly widowed sister, Agnesia, who shares the house with her.

An urgent phone call from her niece, Mandy upsets the routine. Mandy and her wife, Laura, need help urgently. Their community of Riverbend, North Dakota, is under threat by what appears to be a vampire and the resources of their metaphysical shop, the North Star, are stretched to their limit.

Sephie wastes no time. She and her protege, B.D. Travers, pack everything -- including a few dozen jars of Cousin Lije's secret ingredient -- into the station wagon and head north.

Once in Riverbend, Sephie finds the vampire along with a whole host of other supernatural creatures and just maybe a bit of romance.