According to village legend, the House of Athel was founded by a Viking chieftain who came to plunder the land and stayed on to love it. For nearly a thousand years the Athelsons have owned the estate of Clere Athel, on a remote stretch of the north coast of England, and administered it according to patriarchal custom.

Bravely and single-mindedly, they have sheltered their land and their people from the harsh vicissitudes of the outside world, but as the benign nineteenth century gives way to the abrasive twentieth, it grows increasingly clear that their isolation cannot last. Yet Old Athel still fights to hold back the tide of change, determined that Athel, his grandson, shall succeed him in the traditional way.

To this ancestral home come fifteen-year-old Justine Athelson and her widowed mother, in search of a dowry for her daughter. The seasons turn, replenishing the fields of Athel, and Justine and young Athel begin to develop a relationship for each other that is far more than cousinly—a relationship expressly forbidden by the centuries-old Blood Book.

Overshadowed by the brooding presence of old Athel Athelson, young Athel and Justine face the painful challenges of love. For the story of THE ATHELSONS is a history of love: the tender love of man and woman, the dutiful love for the people of Athel, and, more important and more difficult to satisfy, the overpowering love for the land and the binding traditions of the house of Athelson.