Sir Charles Augustus Shelmadine was an autocrat. He ruled his village with a firm but kindly hand-instructing his tenants on their crops, their children, and their love-affairs.
And when he died and the new Squire came, the village stirred uneasily. For the new Squire had strange ideas- and even stranger friends-friends like Mr Mundford who never seemed to grow any older and whose name- so rumour had it-was linked with the terrible Hell Fire Club.
And Mr Mundford was interested in too many things that should not have concerned him like the ruins of the old Roman temple and what happened in the village on All-Hallows's night and in the silent, amber-eyed young woman called Damask Greenaway..