When Elise Friedmanās mother died suddenly on Eliseās eighth birthday, any hope of unlocking her mysterious past died with her. Raised by her adoptive father, Elise has spent years trying to learn the truth about her mother, Catrina, and the life Catrina left behind when she emigrated to America. Now a young woman in college, Elise travels to her motherās homeland of Germany to unearth the truth. Accompanied by her motherās close friend, Addison, and a cocky young globe-trotter she meets in Berlin, Elise is finally getting close to the truthāand to the same evil that once ensnared her mother.