Since her fiancé's death, Nela Farley has been plagued by the sense that she understands the thoughts of cats. Nela knows it's irrational, and decides that she's just transferring her own thoughts. Then her sister, Chloe, goes on a trip and asks Nela to fill in at her job. Arriving at the place Chloe arranged for her to stay, Nela sees the previous tenant's cat and thinks: ". . . dead and gone . . . she loved me . . . board rolled on the second step . . ." And as Nela researches the previous tenant's life, strange events begin to occur.