Rosaura Douglas's father shot himself after her mother left him . . . or at least that's the story everyone is telling. Now her mother has remarried and Rosie is trapped in "The Cake House," a garish pink edifice in the hills of Los Angeles that's a far cry from the cramped apartment where she grew up. It's also the house where her father died—a fact that everyone else who lives there, including her mother, Dahlia, and her mysteriously wealthy stepfather, Claude, want to forget.
 
Soon, however, her father's ghost appears, sometimes in a dark window, sometimes in the house’s lush garden, but always with warnings that Claude is not to be trusted. And as the ghost becomes increasingly violent—and the secrets of her family’s past come to light—Rosie must finally face the truth behind the losses and lies that have torn her life apart.