Spring, 1803. An uneasy peace between Britain and France endures - for now. In Edinburgh, as speculation grows about the resumption of war, the city’s parlours and taverns find distraction in the intriguing new faces appearing in the affluent New Town. On Hill Street, the Andrews family arrives from London, reeling from a recent scandal but determined to make a fresh start. And on Thistle Street, Marie Tussaud’s waxwork exhibition opens, offering vivid glimpses of French royalty and revolutionaries alike.

Glimpses which French emigre and psychic Ailsa Rose does not welcome.

However, unwanted reminders of bloodshed and strife are the least of Ailsa’s worries. When her spiritual abilities cause her to cross paths with the Andrews family, she foresees the death of the eldest daughter, Clara. Disturbed by the violence of her vision, Ailsa feels compelled to investigate and to thwart Clara’s dreadful fate.

But as Ailsa digs deeper into the young woman’s secrets, she also finds herself unearthing the ghosts of her own past, including those she thought she’d left behind in revolutionary France…