Thirteen year old Cassie Baker can't believe her good luck when her great-grandfather leaves her his Victorian mansion high on a cliff above the ocean, complete with a beach house, a lighthouse, its own cemetery, and rumors of a vast fortune hidden somewhere in a secret room. With her mom and seven brothers and sisters piled into the station wagon, Cassie and her family head for Port Pennfield, expecting to explore a mansion that's been empty for fifty years. Or has it? Soon the newcomers hear a rumor that the estate is haunted. Silas, the shadowy longtime caretaker, warns of a terrifying banshee, a midnight ghost ship, fairies in the woods, and vampires in the town hall. Before long the newcomers are hearing footsteps in the hallways of the mansion, ghostly piano playing in the music room, growling and shrieking in the walls, and thunder and rain sounds in the attic when the weather outside is fine. Soon food begins to disappear from the kitchen, a portrait of great-grandfather changes from a placid face to a twisted, toothy grin, and they seem to have a ghost that leaves the scent of lilac. Now Cassie and her family are plunged into a world of danger. As the tension mounts, Cassie is faced with finding the truth behind the ghostly happenings, perplexing puzzles, and the legend of the banshee. What she unravels could rewrite her family's history - if she lives long enough.