In this magnificent novel set in nineteenth-century New York, a young woman looking for passion and purpose finds herself lost in a sprawling mansion whose long-buried secrets threaten to tear her whole world apart.

In the spring of 1844, the family of Miranda Wells receives an invitation from a distant relative, the wealthy landowner Nicholas Van Ryn, to visit his Hudson Valley estate, Dragonwyck. Eighteen-year-old Miranda, bored with the local suitors and her commonplace life on the farm, leaps at the chance for escape. She immediately falls under the spell of Nicholas and his mansion, mesmerized by its Gothic towers, flowering gardens, and luxurious lifestyle--unaware of the dark, terrible secrets that lie within.

This is the heart-stopping story of a woman ahead of her time who follows her passions all the way to the mysterious world of Dragonwyck.