When Addie Velde receives an invitation to attend an early orientation program at the University of the Arches, she eagerly accepts. After all, the Arches-with its idyllic beachside campus-is her mom's beloved alma mater, and there's nothing Addie wants more than to leave her own mark. But from the moment she arrives on campus and moves into her gloomy dorm, nicknamed The Crypt, Addie realizes there are more sinister secrets to uncover than sandy days in her future.

Addie's search for answers launches her straight into the heart of an old campus mystery which to this day keeps students and faculty wary of the shadowy "Buried Ones", believed to be the omens of death. A vanished professor, an occult society, and the chance her family was involved pushes her investigation into dangerous territory.

Will she lose herself to the Buried Ones or end their sinister reign once and for all?