Set in Westport and New York City, the novel opens at a major medical center, where psychologist and twice-monthly newspaper columnist Dinah Rosenberg Galligan -- mother of Elijah, a 5-year-old coma victim -- meets a ghost with a surprising connection to her troubled past. The spirit who calls himself Seth Lucien proves a very seductive fellow indeed. Claiming to know what lies in store for Dinah and her family, Seth promises he can make everything turn out all right. Otherwise, Elijah is destined to live out the rest of his life as a "stone child" -- trapped in a vegetative state that, with the help of modern technology, could go on for years. Estranged from her parents, unable to communicate with her husband or two older children, Dinah seizes on this opportunity to snatch her boy back from a cruel and pointless future. And so an unearthly bargain is struck -- one that brings Dinah back to a place she has long avoided, nearly destroys her marriage, yet ultimately leaves her where she needs to be.