Geoffrey Bledding, sole survivor of the centuries-old marriage of the fifth Geoffrey Bledding and Eleanor Sorrow, is a remote, enigmatic man. Is his absorption in the administration of the great Yorkshire estate more probably an obsession with his family's ominous past and fear of his own destiny? Is there more truth than fancy to the rumor that Bledding somehow subjects his fragile, utterly secluded young American wife to unspeakable acts? And why does the doctor so frequently in attendance do nothing to intervene? And what role is played by the estate's faithful aging housekeeper?