Eiri Kurahashi is an art school student, with a job at a local antique store. It's there that he develops a strange obsession. He finds himself entranced by a portrait of a Victorian-era girl named Cossette....

In the tale, an unnamed narrator pieces together the story of an area known by the locals as the "blasted heath" in the wild hills west of Arkham, Massachusetts. The narrator discovers that many years ago a ...