Dismembered, bloody bodies are turning up on the sandy dunes of small town Flagler Beach, Florida.

Plunge yourself in the tale of twists and turns in this psychological thriller as seen through the eyes of renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Patel. And only Dr. Patel believes he knows who is committing these murders as he valiantly explores his client’s aberrational thoughts and feelings.

Drawn into the darkness of his client’s multiple psychiatric disorders, he is duped into the belief that he can help his client before more murders are committed. But his cunning client is immersed in a profession where her delusions can be hidden. If only he can find some way to break his oath of confidence to hint of her involvement to Police Chief Ritter, who is engaged in solving this whirlwind of deaths.

Dr. Patel believes that his intelligent and beautiful client has a dissociative personality with limited perceptions in which she operates on a different plane than the rest of the world. Honestly believing that unresolved childhood issues have numbed her so that she feels nothing, he realizes that something is very amiss because she is unable to connect with others. But is she fully aware of the murders she is committing and can Dr. Patel come to the bottom of her problems before more scattered bodies are found? Or is this some Machiavellian plot devised by a person who is pure evil? And is Dr. Patel correct in believing that she is the perpetrator or is the murderer really someone else, perhaps even Dr. Patel? Even the Police Chief has a hidden and devious background as he hides out incognito in the stunning little seaside town.

Follow the subplot of real estate developers who may be involved as they try to get the townspeople to sell their property in abject fear of more murders, hoping to scoop up the distressed properties.

The suspense mounts to a shocking and unexpected conclusion as the hazardous path of strewn remains leads in sinister zigzags to the perpetrator.

Trevor Queens graduates from Brown. Just like his father, he is a psychologist and can't wait to put all that he learned into practice. To his surprise, the acclaimed Nerz Institution offers him a position. When he leaves for New Caledonia, he is astonished by the beauty of the clinic; his future workplace. He settles into his study, and begins working as the psychologist of the nurses working in the facility. After a few months, he is familiar with everyone, except the treated patients, because he never sees any. Every nurse seems reluctant to answer his questions regarding the maintenance, while they are eager to share every detail about their life. Trevor can hardly disguise his qualm. Adelaine, the Chief Nurse offers him a 2-week recess as their patient.

Trevor abides and makes two discoveries: how The Nerz Institution provides such successful research and why they employed him.

He was the only missing piece.

The only missing specimen in Adelaine's Zoo of Schizophrenia. There is no way back.

Can he escape? Is he able to convince the other inhabitants to stand with him?

But most importantly, should they leave at all? Is the Zoo a prison, or a shelter?

The inhabitants of Springvale are frightened to find the body of a woman after the lake's ice melted. The dead corpse's eyes still shine with desperation, its body shows pain. The farmers who found her slowly back away, and then rush to the town. No one goes near the lake for a few days, because the woman's dreadful expression disgusts every human creature. They are unable to decipher the body's origins, until an aged man arrives to the town. The tramp sits down, encircled by the houses and the eager faces of Springvale, revealing, he knows the story of the lady. 

"Not many of you crosses Freymoore Heights, but your eyes can see it from here" he begins, his rusty syllables slowly crawling into the ears of the people. "You're not from Ailville, otherwise you would know. I haven't seen it, but I already know its the Countess. 

"Once the Count of Freymoore Heights ruled the whole mountain, and the forests of Ailville, the meadows of Springvale all belonged to him. But the gentleman died one day. Leaving a charming Countess alone. Gossips of poison started in the meadows." He became silent, coughed, and continued: 

"It wasn't a month after, that the Countess, Yris, as I remember her name, started to like her servant. He was a poor, young boy, I knew his mother. The boy also seemed to love her, and the affair has begun. Weeks later, the mother found out about their relation. She insisted on moving away, far from Freymoore Heights, to leave his son's 'unearthly' love with the 'wicked witch'. But Yris could not let go. She forced her lover to stay, but when he refused, the blind rage of the wicked Countess drove her to take the life of the servant.

"She could not bear the void, which she left by her own deed. She left the fort of Freymoore, and stayed in the forests of Ailville. She ran, screaming in the night, wandered the frozen lake for years. She seldom went back to the fort, which was destroyed by the wind after the years. She wept there, among the bricks, still embracing the rotting body of the boy, which she carried along her way. Her hair and torn clothes scared the people; even when alive, she looked like a dead woman. Her scars and behavior made the people of Ailville stay in their houses during the brightest sunlight, afraid of meeting her somewhere.

"I'm surprised, that she found her death only after the many years of the suffering she caused everyone, even herself. Her body is solid now, and I know, it's caused by the icy stone, her heart, and not by the call of her fate"

The people of Springvale stood astonished at the end of the Countess's eerie story. They headed back to their work, but the next day, a few of them packed up, and set on the road. Soon, the houses of Springvale became the haunting place of Yris's spectre...