The name of Lady Karoleigh Stafford was the mark of one death and the omen of more to come. Her spirit permeated Walesly-Upon-Thames. Full-length portraits of the splendid beauty hung from the walls. Her name was behind every thought. Her ghost inhabited the block tower. Lady Karoleigh Stafford was dead -- but she lived on in the flesh of her nineteen-year-old daughter, a girl who was "more rain than storm, more shadow than substance."

The pall which had fallen over the medieval castle would not be lifted until history repeated itself. The agent of change would be an outsider - another young woman - whose presence would bring the drama to its climax and to its tragic end.