Thea Windsong, self-styled shaman, comes to affluent Wellesford, Connecticut, to buy a home, a middle-aged woman with long, black hair, a pickup truck, and no apparent connections to the town. The property that wins her heart is a rundown little house by the railroad tracks off Thornwood Road, across the pond from a Civil War cemetery, and saddled with the rumor that it is haunted by the spirit of an ancient witch. This is a she-wood! Thea says, sensing a divine feminine energy in the near-wilderness surrounding the old cottage and barn.When Thea vanishes shortly after becoming the propertys new owner, the only one who seems to care is Lydie Pretlove, the real estate agent who tried to talk her out of buying it.