1967, Nigeria. Celia has been estranged from her family since they banished her to St. Agnes's reform school after her brother's death. When the school closes down, she has nowhere to go and no one to write for help.

She secures a job as a typist, marking the beginning of a new chapter; she hopes to leave behind the demons of her past and become a normal, happier person. And when a charismatic yet secretive aspiring politician hires her to be his fiancé, Celia begins to dream of a possible new future. But when everything falls apart, Celia, in desperation, returns to her childhood home--the Water House.

There, Celia is confronted by her hostile mother, a past love, and the horrors that the house holds deep in its walls. As a civil war brews in the outside world, Celia begins to suspect that the truth behind her brother's death might be more sinister than she imagined.

In a twist on Jane Eyre and Rebecca, Nneoma Ife-Njoku weaves a mesmerising story of a woman confronting a home where the past refuses to stay buried.