Bath, 1821. Rachel Crofton leaves behind the binds of her unhappy employment as a governess and starts a new life as the wife of a charming self-made merchant. As she promises to love, honour and obey him, she plans to create for herself the family and home she has so long been without. Through her new husband's connections Rachel is invited to become the companion of the reclusive Jonathan Alleyn, a man tortured by memories of what he witnessed in the Peninsula War, and tormented by the disappearance of his childhood sweetheart, Alice, twelve years ago. Rachel's arrival into the grand house on Lansdown Crescent has a mysterious effect on those who live there, and suddenly it seems the secrets and dark deeds of the past can no longer be swept away. A family servant is convinced that Alice was stolen away and is determined to uncover the truth. Did she run away? Was there someone else? Or did something altogether darker occur?