John Rawlings travels to Devon to be with Elizabeth di Lorenzi as she prepares to give birth to their child. At Sidmouth House he discovers another family event approaching: Lady Sidmouth’s young daughter Miranda is to marry the much older Earl of St Austell, a man whose reputation for cruelty makes Rawlings deeply uneasy.
As the wedding draws closer, private fears, inheritance and social pressure gather around a match that has little of romance about it. Rawlings is also troubled by a warning from his daughter Rose, whose disturbing vision seems to anticipate danger from an older woman. When violence finally breaks through the ceremony, he finds himself inside a murderous plot where the obligations of family and rank have made the truth difficult to speak aloud.
