A New York writer of gothic fiction finds her mansion full of ghosts from a brothel massacre.

Paul Steward, editor of a scientific journal, considers his life to be an empty failure. Awake one morning after a sleepless night, he comes to a decision: this evening he will take a rifle and shoot and kill his wife, their three children and then himself.

The story of murder among a trio of teenagers after a boy breaks up with a girl and she runs into the arms of his vulnerable best friend.