When Joan Quincey sees the words Fair Kilmeny on the fly-leaf of an old book of sermons, she feels a chill that deepens when she arrives at Witchwood to meet the family of her fianc , Cal Renshaw. In this placid 19th-century Cornish neighborhood, dangers arise that are rooted in the passions of the past. A light flickers by the pool where a witch was once drowned; strangers move across the moor to the abandoned farmhouse where Cal s cousin was born. Attempted murder leads to tragedy, and over all broods the shadow of Fair Kilmeny, in whose small hands a web of violence is slowly spun.