Toby works as a publicist in an art gallery and comes from a well-to-do family. One night, he comes home to find two burglars who beat him nearly to death, leaving him with severe physical and mental trauma, including holes in his memory. After a hospital stay, and unable to live on his own anymore due to his disabilities, Toby moves in to Ivy House--the family estate--to recuperate and care for an uncle dying of brain cancer. One day, he finds a skull in an old Witch Elm, and the investigation into who the skull belongs to prompts a mystery that reaches back into Toby's childhood. But with his brain damage, spotty memory, and poor sense of self, he begins to question the events of his childhood that may have involved murder, and his current situation as a victim of violent crime.
