When a childish prank is linked to murder, Lady Anne Addison must investigate the death of a young woman at the hands of a ghoulish fiend . . .

As her wedding to Lord Darkefell approaches, Lady Anne is summoned by a local girls' school to help them with a young student troubled by ghostly apparitions. She's quick to respond, and quick to discover the trickery behind the so-called ghosts. But despite her efforts to demonstrate to the student that she’s been the victim of a cruel hoax, the young woman apparently jumps to her death the very next night. Stunned and saddened by the turn of events, Lady Anne soon realizes that what she thought was a prank was a dark precursor to foul play.

Certain that someone closely connected to the school murdered the young woman, Lady Anne promptly begins questioning students and staff alike to root out the culprit. Confronting calculating young classmates, pompous instructors, and even the shockingly callous relatives of the victim, she still feels no closer to exposing the killer. Then a pattern emerges suggesting exactly who was behind the foul deed, and Anne will put her life on the line to find justice for a young woman who lost her own life too soon . . .