What happens when the man who carries you to the afterlife refuses to let you go?

Birdie Priest is not looking for complications. An art restorer who worships her routines, she came to a small, historic Indiana town to finish a job and move on to the next. If she works quickly, it will be a breeze.

Then she meets Rip. Brooding, glaringly handsome, and allergic to conversation. He is the town's librarian who won't shake her hand, won't smile out of politeness, and won't stop looking at her like he's waiting for something terrible to happen. Really, she needs to stop thinking about him.

But the more Birdie gets to know him, the more impossible Rip seems. He speaks like he's from another century, heals from wounds he denies exist, and his pain runs deeper than she could imagine. Plus, the town itself has been unusual since she arrived. The ghost stories feel less like legends and more like omens, her new assistant watches her a little too closely, and the faceless portrait she uncovers stands out from the others.

Then Birdie dies, and the man shrouded in mystery is the one who shows up to take her soul.

Now they're both unraveling. Her life hanging between worlds, his immortality crumbling at her hands, and a truth buried so deep he erased himself to hide it. The only way to save them is to find what they both forgot. But Birdie is starting to realize that nothing about her being here was ever an accident.

Who sent her to this town? And what, exactly, was she meant to restore?