During all those years when everyone wanted me to tell them...how I came to fire that shot, I never wanted to talk. Now I think I do... Agnes Dempster - young, beautiful, and accused of murder. Vermont, 1890. After an unhappy childhood, Agnes Dempster turns her back on her family and escapes to the city to begin a new life. There she meets Frank Holt, a local stonecutter, a man who captures her imagination and opens her eyes to an entirely different world. They begin a relationship, but over time Agnes becomes more dependent on Frank and this soon becomes an obsession - a dangerous one. And when she discovers her beloved is t as perfect as the image she had created of him, the cracks in her already fragile psyche begin to deepen. He is a betrayer, a man who will never make her happy. And as her life spirals out of control Agnes is propelled into a state of barely-controlled madness; a madness that leads to a chaotic and destructive resolution which will affect her and those around her for the rest of their lives...