A ghost story attracts hundreds of summer tourists to Haapsalu Castle in Estonia, a small former Soviet satellite country just next to St. Petersburg, Russia. In early evening, tourists sit outside in lawn chairs and listen to beautiful music in concert, scanning windows to see if they can spot the returning image of the white lady, as she is dubbed, in the belltower. Her ghostly presence has been cited on numerous occasions and everyone wants to say they have seen her.

This lady who flits in dragging her veils anew from a remote past, is said to have endured what no woman should ever have endured–death by enuring behind a wall because she dared to meet her lover dressed as a boy choir member and entered a religious zone in the castle forbidden expressly to women. When they were discovered, both she and her lover were punished and given a death sentence. Today castle and other officials declare this to be legend alone.

But that’s not what Michaela had come to believe. Ever since she accepted the art exchange to Estonia and left home and parents for adventure, and in fact, even before–a recurring dream of foreign snowy woods and dark strangers stalking her from behind trees has haunted her. There in Estonia at the University she met the castle owner and government official Peeter, her art professor who taught there as a sideline. In spite of the age difference, sparks flew. Will Michaela marry Peeter and move into the castle with him?

Her explorations turned up old secrets from the catacombs below the castle to the catacombs of Peeter’s life. Her inquiring mind left no stone unturned in a country where independence was only recently obtained. Her efforts were not appreciated by officials or Peeter’s family members. In fact, a series of episodes was unleashed in their lives. Crazy things started happening at the art museum where she worked, and one famous artist they exhibited introduced her to a historical concept of the lady in white. Peeter’s brother didn’t like her.  Peeter’s secrets she unwittingly uncovered, and he did not appreciate that.

At the height of the action and tension, Michaela disappeared and led Peeter into hashing out things he’d let lie, and into trying to locate the woman he had regrettably neglected. Meanwhile, Michaela must battle out her own story in this fast-paced Gothic contemporary novel. Many surprising twists and turns take you through to the satisfying conclusion of a personal and national story,

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