Young Bessie and Bryant enjoy everything an old New England family has to offer: hereditary wealth, an historical home on Long Island Sound, generations of connections, an all-but-assured successful future. They have the world in the their hands as they enjoy the warm, calm summer water of the Sound on a Connecticut beach, preparing to go off to college in Montreal. Their idyllic life suddenly begins to unravel with the arrival of a new girl in town, a discovery in their parents' attic, and the unveiling of a familial curse that has pursued their forebears for centuries.