Rosa Diaz Barclay, mourning the loss of four of her eight children, lives on a rye farm in California with her abusive husband when she finally leaves him in order to save two of her remaining children from succombing to a mysterious wasting disease and when she reunites with her ex-husband, the father of her two healthy children, they try to start a winery in the midst of prohibition.

Doc Ford has been involved in many strange cases. This may be one of the strangest. A legendary charter captain and guide named Tootsie Barlow has come to him, muttering about a curse. The members of his extended family have suffered a bizarre series of attacks, and Barlow is convinced it has something to do with a multiple murder in 1925, in which his family had a shameful part. Ford doesn't believe in curses, but as he and his friend Tomlinson begin...