 After precipitating the death of a tenant with whom he has been feuding, Squire Fairfield brings the dead man s young daughter to live in Wyvern Manor. Alice grows up thinking the squire is her kind benefactor, and falls in love with one of his two sons. When the squire makes his romantic intentions known to Alice, she and Charles elope, incurring the wrath of his father. They avoid the squire by living in an outlying estate where their baby is born. Charles is attacked by a mysterious woman who literally comes out of the woodwork, and the baby is moved to the home of an acquaintance of Harry, the squire s other son. Alice faces the loss of her child and possible loss of her husband amid the gloomy home she feels trapped in, surrounded by secrets and mysteries and wondering who she can really trust.