Research assistant Wren Bergschneider and her boss, Professor Allan Partner, find themselves targets of a deranged shooter after they emerge from the basement of an old asylum slated for demolition. As their lives take an unexpected and dangerous turn, both the police and the institution's comptroller want Allan and Wren to cease their research of the historical building. But the handsome history professor has more at stake than publishing another bestselling biography about Dorothea Dix. He is also quietly investigating the death of his mother, who died under suspicious circumstances while a patient at the mental asylum many years before. Can they uncover the scandal of the institution before the secrets—or Wren and Allan—are buried forever?