'A literary thriller of the highest order' Julia May Jonas, author of Vladimir Gil has been estranged from his sister ever since her obnoxious son tried to drown his daughter on a family holiday. That's Gil's interpretation; his sister thinks he was only playing around. Or did. When she and her husband perish in a car crash, Gil becomes his nephew's legal guardian. Matthew is now an urbane 17-year-old, raised in Manhattan's Upper East Side, a planet away from rural Vermont, where Gil lives with his wife and daughters, teaching at the local university. At first, Matthew seems like he has changed, but when he begins to take Gil's writing classes, he submits a story detailing the various ways a character resembling Gil's youngest daughter might die. While Gil believes that he has invited a psychopath to live under his roof, the women in his life are impressed by Matthew's intelligence and charm. Is Gil losing his mind, or are his family in desperate danger?