Orphaned at five, and now eighteen years of age, Cecilia Hawthorne struggles to make ends meet using her gift at art and writing. Her life drastically changes when she receives a mysterious letter informing her that she has inherited Redwood Manor in Cumbria from her estranged grandfather. This all seems too good to be true until she learns from the locals that Redwood Manor is cursed. Suspicions continue to increase when the only staff who run the manor, Lionel Coulter, Frederick Jenkins, Silas Monkford and Basil Thornton prohibit her from entering the manor's primrose garden. What secrets will Cecilia learn of her family, and why is the primrose garden a forbidden place?