Sir Alexander St Barbe is the black sheep of the St Barbe family… The only son of the late Nathaniel St Barbe, he has spent the last several years in exile in Holland, living a dissolute and debauched life far from his well-respected family in England. Now, however, he has returned to Somerset to claim Wintercombe as his inheritance — but his arrival is greeted with trepidation and foreboding. Bitter quarrels break out on his first night home and soon, the old fires of family passions and religious contention are raging. Even Alex’s aunt Silence Hellier, herself once mistress of Wintercombe, cannot smooth over the ensuing rifts. Although Silence sees trouble in the instant spark that ignites between Alex and his younger, fiery half-French cousin Louise, there is little she can do to dampen the flames that draw them closer together. Louise, who has escaped scandal in France to come to England in search of a husband, knows she should stay away from her attractive, fascinating cousin. But she finds herself unable to resist his allure. But the turmoil at Wintercombe is only a drop in the troubled seas in which England finds herself. The Duke of Monmouth’s uprising brings disaster and tragedy to Somerset — and to the St Barbe family. To everyone’s surprise, the greatest danger to Wintercombe, lies deep in the heart of a man whose jealousy and resentment drive him to betrayal of the worst possible kind…