After ten years away, Vivien Walker returns to her childhood city from sunny California and settles in a cozy estate by the river. Behind her is a painful breakup with her husband, and she hopes that her native places will help her survive the loss. But the first days bring only disappointment: the house is empty, her grandmother is dead, everything around has changed completely—and even the old cypress tree, in the shade of which Vivien as a young girl “listened to the swamp song,” has been destroyed by a merciless tornado.
The natural disaster pushes Vivien to recall another incident—back in 1929, her great-grandmother, the wife of a watchmaker, disappeared during the Great Flood. This story is steeped in secrecy, and Vivien decides to occupy herself with a small investigation, just to have something to do. But one careless step is all it takes—and the mystery takes an unexpectedly unusual turn…