"It is 1853 and President-Elect Franklin Pierce is travelling with his family to Washington, DC, when tragedy strikes. In an instant, their train runs off the rails, violently flinging its passengers about the cabin. When the great iron machine comes to rest, the only casualty of the day is the Pierces' beloved son, Bennie. With this event, the Pierce presidency is cast under a pall of grief. One that will metastasize into something much more malevolent, disturbing, and downright horrifying as the Pierces move into the White House and begin to notice strange goings on: sounds coming from the walls and ceiling, voices that seem to echo out of time itself, and visions of spirits crushed under the weight of American history. But when Jane Pierce brings in noted spiritualists of the day, the Fox Sisters, for a séance in the White House, the barrier between good and evil is rent asunder. Something horrible comes through, and takes up residence alongside Franklin and Jane in the walls and floors and ceilings of the very mansion itself. Only by overcoming their grief and confronting their darkest secrets can Jane and Franklin hope to rid themselves--and America--from the curse that haunts the White House."-- Provided by publisher.