Mark is uprooted from his home and high school in the Twin Cities and forced to move with his family into a Victorian in Nowhere-ville. Busy with the relocation and fitting in, Mark’s parents don’t see what’s unfolding around them—the way rooms and left behind objects seem alive with a haunted past.

That past is the mid-1800s where Emma dwells. Tormented by the loss of her mother and having to live with her overbearing father who hopes to see the eradication of all indigenous people, she nurses soldiers back to health. Her torment escalates as she develops a passion for the Native American hired hand who sleeps just beyond her bedroom door. Together, they must unite to battle the supernatural force threatening to consume—and curse—all who dare to tread on the grounds. Will their forbidden love survive?

Back in the 1980s, Mark keeps his ghostly encounters to himself, all the while sinking deeper into the house's dark, alluring, and ultimately terrifying history. As romantic entanglements with the ghostly Emma intensify, the paranormal activity heightens. Past and present come together. Everything is connected—from the bricks in the walls to the hearts beating in their chests, all the secrets of Fountain Dead are finally unearthed.