In 1958 Nigeria, on the brink of independence, Ajoke is a young woman caught between two worlds, one of Christian faith and modern medicine, the other of ancient spirits and a family curse that defies all logic. For a hundred years, a dark legacy has stalked her bloodline: the women die in childbirth, drowning on dry land from a phantom smoke, while the men who marry them are driven to a sorrowful madness. With her own wedding approaching, Ajoke knows she is next in line.

When a terrifying dream and a supernatural experience convince her that the family's "bad luck" is a sentient malice, Ajoke defies both her mother's fearful prayers and her aunt's cynical logic. Her desperate quest for the truth leads her to an Ifa priest, who reveals the curse's origin in a brutal, century-old betrayal involving two powerful families and a slave girl named Yetunde, whose love for her murdered child was twisted into a rage that has echoed through generations.

To save her future and redeem her ancestors, Ajoke must journey into the Eternal Dusk, a spirit realm of weeping ghosts and looping sorrows, to confront the vengeful spirit who fuels the curse. But in a place where pain is a law of nature, she discovers that the price of peace may be a sacrifice more terrible than she could ever imagine.