In the shadows of a deep wood, in shadows of the soul deeper still, live 13 year-old Little Turcott and her mother. To their door is dragged a girl named A.D., prone to fits and wracked by visions, left to be watched for the day. As Little Turcott leads A.D. through chores, she is both repelled and drawn to the maddening, inexplicable girl who seems to have dropped from another world. When A.D. realizes that she's been brought to these women not to be watched, but to be murdered, she gives Little Turcott a vision of a marvelous "Elsewhere" and promises to take her there if she's set free. Haunted by this vision, Little Turcott must find the courage to outwit her mother when the day is done and she is set one last chore - to kill A.D.