Lyndle Hall is a medieval manor house lying in the heart of Northumbria's national park. It is from here that an eighteen-year-old girl disappears - along with Lyndle's owner, Francis Herrol. First assumptions are that the two ran off together, but evidence indicates otherwise, and when Detective Inspector Tate arrives at Lyndle to investigate and meets Nicholas Herrol, a tormented young man, his fears for the girl's fate deepen. Parapsychologist Audrah Sidow is convinced there is nothing on this earth for which there is not a rational explanation. But she knows that there is more to the collection of fractured people gathered at Lyndle than is apparent, and as the police hunt for a dead body grows increasingly urgent, she must discover what lies at Lyndle Hall's dark heart.