It is a moonlit night in 1868 when twenty-year-old Samuel Lee Simms hops into an empty boxcar and travels away from the ghosts that haunt his old life in the Carolinas. As twilight seeps through the tiny cracks in the boxcar, the small town of Wrangler appears in the distance. Samuel jumps off, rolls in the dirt, and looks for the new sawmill. As he walks toward his new beginning, Samuel has no idea of what awaits him in his future.

Samuel secures work at the sawmill, rents a room, and makes new friends—one of whom is the mother of eighteen-year-old, Katherine, who is heading home from New York soon. But just as Samuel begins to settle into his life, he is haunted by strange dreams that seem to warn of danger and deceptive outsiders. The dreams are premonitions, heralding troubles on the horizon. Distracted by the inner demons brought to life by memories of his past, Samuel has trouble concentrating on his work—until he finally meets the lovely Katherine, the one person who can help him unravel his secrets. When Samuel and Katherine visit a gypsy, who leads them back to 1762, London, they learn of an earlier life they had shared.

In this gripping historical tale, Samuel discovers the joys of love and the terror of a killer who threatens to steal his peace of mind and, worse yet, the lives of those dear to him.