Orphans Charlotte and her kid sister on tranquilizers, frail Lucy, run their ancestral Louisiana estate as a B&B. Businessman and guest Matt Rutledge becomes shy Lucy's lover. Matt ignores a warning to leave for his own safety by Etienne LeViolette, the girls' studly friend in the nearby bayou swamp, the only one who suspects that Charlotte is a killer after the disappearance and presumed murder of Lucy's first lover, local adolescent Jud Nevins. Sherif Cleve Doucet suspects Etienne, but also digs into the past, which holds a more elaborate dark secret leading to more bloodshed.