Growing up in Pakistan, Maria Latif has been bounced between reluctant relatives for as long as she can remember - first because of her parents' constant travel, and then because of their deaths. When old friends of her parents offer to "give her a better life" in the United States, Maria is shipped across the world. When Maria arrives on Long Island, things are not quite what she was expecting. Mr. Clayborne has left on a business trip, Mrs. Clayborne seems emotionally fraught, and inexplicable things keep happening in the house. And then Maria finds a locked gate to an off-limits garden. She decides to investigate and discovers something she never thought she'd find: a place where she feels at home.