After more than two centuries, Lady Melissa Dewer’s current body is wearing out.

Luring Patrick, the last of the Dewer bloodline, and his long-term girlfriend Polly to her remote Dartmoor town proves easy. Tricking them out of a child neither of them want to have will not.

On moving to their new home, Patrick finds a dismembered foot in a stone circle and soon discovers that, in Dourstone Nymet, there is always a mysterious disappearance during their ancient Winter festival.

Once Polly falls unexpectedly pregnant, Lady Melissa takes her under her wing and, amid rumours of Patrick’s infidelity, persuades her not to get rid of the baby.

It looks like Lady Melissa will get her wish and, unless Polly wakes up to the manipulations of this remote town and its odd traditions, it could be Patrick that disappears, along with her unborn child.