Commercial photographer Maggie Holloway attends a party and is, by chance, reunited with Nuala, the stepmother she has not seen since childhood. Maggie accepts Nualas invitation to visit her in Rhode Island, but when Maggie arrives, Nuala is dead--apparently the victim of a random break-in. To her surprise, Maggie learns that Nualas house is bequeathed to her, the only stipulation being that she visit Nualas friend Gerda. When Maggie fulfills this request, she discovers that Gerda is a resident of a nearby nursing home--a home with an alarmingly high death rate of seemingly healthy patients.