Emily was a happy, bubbly little girl until events took a tragic turn one summer night in Galveston, Texas. Suddenly her mother and sister are dead and Emily is left dying in the swamp while the murderer calmly drives away. Emily's life is spared when she is found and rushed to hospital with critical head injuries. The killer is tracked down, tried, and convicted. In the months to come Emily appears to recover fully, but there remains a deeper, unhealed injury. Emily and her father settle back into a comfortable life before fate strikes another sudden blow and Emily is left alone. Sorting through the personal effects of her father she discovers his darker side. She learns from a diary that he had plotted a bitter revenge against the murderer and his family. Emily makes a solemn vow and retrieves the gauntlet her father dropped. As a series of unfortunate deaths begin to occur in the convicted man's family, who could have suspected that they were being committed by such a young, charming, and educated woman? Even if they suspected, they would never catch her, but things are not at all what they seem.