Adventure columnist Bryan Blackburn receives an unexpected call and learns he will inherit his grandmother's house nestled deep in the hills of Eastern Kentucky. The same house his dad died in. The same house he fled from with his mom years ago to escape his grandmother's torment. After returning to the house to claim his inheritance Bryan begins to have dreams of an evil ancestor, ending with a nightly attack and murder of a young woman. A mysterious visitor resembling the woman murdered in his dreams adds to his confusion.
Bryan attempts to return to his normal life in Georgetown only to find he has changed. He comes to realize he's not dreaming, but actually traveling back in time as a ghost from present day. His trespass into the Civil War era unlocks a door, allowing his ancestor from that time period to come forward to invade Bryan's mind and disrupt his life. In Bryan's research to learn his heritage and discover the truth about the ancestor from his dreams, and the mysterious young woman, he discovers a family curse. Only one child, a male, is born into each generation, and they all suffer an early death. Was this his fate as well? As the evil invades his sleeping mind Bryan's personality and appearance change to resemble the evil man from his past. Bryan concludes that he must return to the house to confront the ancestor, ghost to ghost, and end the nightly torment and murder. He must free the haunted souls that reside in the house and free his family from the curse before it strikes his young son.