"So you see, children, this house can be hard and relentless in dealing with those who disobey and break our rules. We will dole out food, drink and shelter but never kindness, sympathy or love. Keep to my rules and you won't feel the bite of my whip, nor will you be deprived of necessities. Dare to disobey me, and you will soon learn all I can do to you, and all I can keep from you."

The four children had had such perfect lives until their father died. Their beautiful mother was left with no money and they had to move out of their lovely home in the dead of night... and into their grandparents' airless, lifeless attic. Their mother promised they would stay just long enough for her very wealthy, very sick father to leave her a fortune. But by the time he did, she'd forgotten all about how she's adored her four children hidden away in the attic. Cared for by a vengeful grandmother, intent on cleansing the sin from these "devil children", days stretched into years of fearful captivity. In their desperate isolation, the teenagers, Cathy and Christopher, and their twin brother and sister were everything to each other. Their mother didn't seem to care about them any more, but their own deep and abiding love was a solid strength - until death came to part them.
--front flap