When Cassandra Hampden, fleeing from her violent husband, returns to her family home of Juniper Park, her dying great-uncle reluctantly offers her the derelict Belvedere Tower. While Cassandra struggles with rotten floorboards and smoking chimneys, the rest of the debt-ridden estate is sold to Daniel Darke, a wealthy Yorkshire mill-owner, intent on moving up in the world. Daniel soon finds his hands full: the estate has been appallingly neglected; his gamekeeper is in league with a gang of poachers; and the beautiful Agnes Parslow, a girl with a hidden agenda, is interested in him. But Daniel, too, has things to hide. And he wants Cassandra out of the Belvedere Tower. But then Cassandra's husband arrives, and his mood is murderous...