In 1959 Constance Foster opened a bookshop in the old Craig Inn of Dunsborough, Norfolk. She employed 11 year-old Amanda Romanie to assist. Over the next 16 months Constance befriended the local Squire, Nathan Ashbourne, a recluse on his Holtbrooke Estate, whose young wife, Stella, had suddenly left him in 1914?some 45 years previously?without explanation. By 1960 Mrs. Brier, the local and malicious Dunsborough patroness, successfully forced Constance to give up her bookshop. Constance returned to London, with Amanda as her ward.
Ten years later, in 1969, Constance and Amanda visit Dunsborough. They meet Stella's grandson, Jonathan Ashbourne, who now resides at Holtbrooke Hall. Amanda finds a news-clip about the sudden "accidental" death of Jonathan's grandfather, Frederick Ashbourne, back in 1914. Amanda is convinced that Frederick was murdered. With the help of Constance and Jonathan, and a touch of romance, she sets out to prove it was indeed murder, and to explain why Stella left so suddenly.