Forest Glen, Maryland, a sleepy suburb of Washington, D.C., has weathered the arrival of the railroad, construction of a summer resort, development of a fashionable girl's finishing school, and the establishment of a U.S. Army base. Throughout these times there has always been a close-knit community of homes and people that were often overshadowed by the many diverse events and changes that prevailed here. The focal point of the community--one of only a few extant eclectic architectural follies in the United States and consisting of many international styles--is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the National Park Seminary Historic District.

Christmastime, 1921. Four senior girls from an elite preparatory school on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., set off after a terrible storm to witness the fury of a devastating flood at the nearby glen. When they spot a dark shape pass by in the raging creek, followed by a small white dress, the possibility they were bystanders to a drowning threatens their harmonious existence. Forest Glen's National Park Seminary, with its eccentrically designed buildings, lavish gardens, and classical statuary, is a place out of step with time, a cloistered bastion of wealth and privilege isolated from the realities of life beyond its forested campus. When an enigmatic New York industrialist arrives the morning after the flood with an unexpected offer to purchase the school, the haunting mystery at the glen is compounded by the Manhattan tycoon's true designs for the property and the private demons he hopes to exorcise during his visit. "Incident at Forest Glen" is an evocative, stylish thriller exploring the tension between the rigidity of academia and societal norms and the mysticism of the foreboding and untamed natural world surrounding the school. When these worlds collide, the results are tragic for the unprepared girls.