Ever since the dust storms arrived and turned her world upside down, ambitious Stella Fischer spends her mornings hiding moonshine in laundry stacks for delivery before returning home to help her sisters--Lavinia and Mattie--run their family home turned boarding house, hoping to make enough money to escape to Hollywood. She has no time for distractions; especially Lloyd, the handsome drifter who works as a hired hand at the boarding house.

When the group decides to forage for building materials at an abandoned cider mill, they discover a passage that sends them back to the mill at its prime. There, they meet Archie, a man trapped in the realm who can conjure up lavish parties and bring back a world of joy and splendor. But Archie isn’t all he seems, and Stella must discover the truth before a storm more deadly than dust destroys her and everyone she loves.