This is not the White House you think you know...

In 1841, less than a month after taking office, President William Henry Harrison dies, and his Vice President, John Tyler, taunted as "His Accidency," steps into the breach before Congress can circumvent him and put someone of their choosing in his place. In retribution, Congress withholds the money for upkeep and staffing. John Tyler then populates the White House with his own Virginia house slaves, led by James Hambleton Christian, the half-brother of Tyler's own wife, Letitia.

The President's House, the supposed "Beacon of Light," has deteriorated into a shabby, rundown place full of broken furniture, with cracked walls, and ceilings dark with oil and coal smoke, infested with spiders. Infested also with something far more sinister.

James Christian soon learns that Harrison's death was unnatural and that the unseen entity responsible-a product of ancient magic-is still with them in the house. It can manifest as a clotted shadow and lure people to their deaths. It wants to destroy Tyler and his entire family, beginning with his children. While Tyler deals with threats and direct existential assaults that cause him to create the first iteration of the Secret Service, James and his staff of slaves confront the monster in their midst, risking everything in a battle between ancient magics with the potential to destroy the entire nation.