Alys Weston secretly writes Gothic novels while her widowed father drinks away her tiny inheritance. After a disillusioning early encounter with the rakish Lord Rayven in Harrogate - in which he came off the worst - she is quite resigned to being a spinster. Several years later, she meets the Lord again in London and he makes it clear that he has not forgotten her - indeed, he dogs her footsteps. But is it for revenge, or some other reason? As Alys becomes unwittingly embroiled in the dark and dangerous rites of a hell-fire club, her very life could hang on the answer.