 Narrative timelines interweave as Edgar Freemantle's present-day nightmare parallels the 1927 Eastlake familial tragedy.Young Elizabeth, head-wounded in a childhood horse-carriage accident, turns to sketching and scribbling as a means of recuperation.An outside presence -- "Perse"—speaks to Elizabeth, sometimes in her mind, sometimes through her rag-doll, filling her with knowledge, and reality-altering powers, and a gradual infiltration of sinister urges.