Edgar Allan Poe married his cousin Virginia when she was thirteen, persuading her mother that he could not live unless she was his wife. But it was Virginia who did not live, dying of tuberculosis in a bitter winter, comforted by her cat. Virginia Poe and her cat haunt the thoughts and conversations of another pair of contemporary cousins, Thea and Finn, who share a passionate history. During the long nights together, at their grandfather's house in the mountains, Thea tells Finn mysterious, beautiful stories, in which the women do not have to die...