With a husband and two children Kate Mayer is unsatisfied with her life. To change she leaves her husband and finds a job at the offices of realtor McNally 'Mac' Hays. Having become invigorated by her new life she also finds herself conflicted as she finds herself having warm feelings for Mac.

Soon after being wed, American heiress Lady Pearl Grayston realizes her husband has married her for her money and is keeping a mistress. The two maintain a loveless marriage, a trade-off Pearl accepts in order to gain admittance to her husband’s aristocratic social circle.

On Christmas Eve 1950, Wilfred Butler dies in a burning accident outside his mansion in East Willard, Massachusetts. The residence is bequeathed to his grandson, Jeffrey. Twenty years later, lawyer John Carter arrives in East Willard on Christmas Eve with his assistant and mistress Ingrid, having been charged by Jeffrey (now registered as a patient in a mental asylum) to sell the house. The house, the town, even Jeffrey himself — all hold dark secrets that will be brought to light.