Seventeen-year-old Daphne Janus goes to an island retreat with her neighbor and best friend, Cam. She doesn't know that she's been sent for experimental "suicide therapy" that crosses ethical lines--something the doctor calls "living art."
 
Between the legends of the Chumash Indians, the ghost stories, and Cam's blatant lies, Daphne doesn't know what's real and what's a therapeutic exercise orchestrated by the Purgatorium, nor does she know whom to trust.
 
When her horse bucks her off during a trail ride and she becomes lost on the "haunted" side of the island, she begins to wonder if her parents sent her there to help her or to punish her.