When bestselling crime writer Mike Noonan's wife dies, he suffers from writer's block. Until he is drawn from Derry to his lakeside retreat, Sara Laughs - a house once inhabited by a famous singer. It's a community run by rich, tyrannical, wheelchair-bound Devore and his terrifying, skeletal female bookkeeper. Devore is hell-bent on getting custody of his grandchild. Three year old Kyra and her young mother, Mattie, turn to Mike for help - and Mike, besotted by Mattie, is powerless to resist. But there are others at Sara Laughs determined to prevent Mike's success - and Kyra can feel them too...