Belsfield Hall, 1805.

The sudden disappearance of her niece's fiancé at their engagement ball leads Miss Dido Kent to worry that something sinister may have occurred. Before long, her fears are confirmed.

Family secrets, long consigned to the darkest recesses of the past, begin to emerge as Dido attempts to unravel the strange happenings. But with the discovery of a body in the shrubbery, Mr Richard Montague's unexplained absence becomes all the more suspicious, and when she finally arrives at the startling truth, it is to change the lives of all involved for ever.