The Old Cape House is historical fiction that follows two Cape Cod women - centuries apart. In the spring of 1715, Maria Hallett falls in love with Sam Bellamy. He leaves her behind on Cape Cod to find his fortune in the West Indies and promises to return. Maria finds herself with child and unwed. Left alone to face the wrath of church elders, she longs for Sam.In present day, Nancy Caldwell moves into an 1880 house on Cape Cod with her husband and four children. In her backyard, she uncovers a root cellar and at its bottom she finds a baby's skull, gold coins and evidence that link her land to the Bellamy Hallett legend. The author, Barbara Eppich Struna uses alternating chapters between the 18th and 21st centuries, to unfold a mystery that has had the old salts of Cape Cod guessing for almost 300 years. This is the first in a series involving contemporary Nancy Caldwell and her innate ability to uncover historical secrets.