The funeral of Charles Henry Topping on Manhattan's Upper East Side would have been a minor affair but for the presence of one particular mourner: the notoriously reclusive author A. N. Dyer, whose novel "Ampersand" stands as a classic of American teenage angst. But as Andrew Newbold Dyer delivers the eulogy for his oldest friend, he suffers a breakdown over the life he's led and the people he's hurt and the novel that will forever endure as his legacy....

Brad and Abby Cairn seem to have it all: a happy marriage, a spacious Manhattan apartment, a gifted nine-year-old son and a new arrival on the way. But young Joshua's resentment toward his baby sister triggers a series of tragic events that fill the Cairn household with utter despair and unspeakable horror. Is it all a series of eerie coincidences-- or the calculated agenda of a sinister sibling with the perfect plan for revenge?