First a rich man's mistress, then a frontier wife, and now a widow...With her two children, half-blind Willy and her adopted daughter, Josefina, Tilly returns to Highfield Manor, where she'd worked as a nursemaid all those years ago.

Now a rich woman, Highfield, the estate and mine are hers. At 35, Tilly is white-haired, but as spirited and as magnetic to men as ever. Her reputation as a witch continues to grow among the villagers, ever hostile and suspicious, but she is supported by faithful friends and warm memories.

Life still has much in store for Tilly: old loves and enmities provide fresh challenges, and the final shaping of her destiny provides the theme for an absorbing and vividly dramatic story.