Now that Meg Corey's apples have been harvested and sold, she's enjoying some free time. Especially since she's snowed in without power or heat. Luckily, her maybe-boyfriend, Seth Chapin, is keeping her company, and has agreed to help her clean out her house. In a dusty corner Meg finds an early-nineteenth-century silk sampler embroidered with apple trees, but she doesn't recognize the names on it as any of the earlier owners of the house. Then she starts being plagued by a series of small but annoying mishaps. Meg doesn't want to appear paranoid, but when she finds herself locked in the unheated barn overnight, and then her kitchen window is shot out, she can't ignore the problem any longer. And if she doesn't figure out how the sampler she found is connected to the motive of her modern-day tormentor, her first harvest could be her last...