1922. Ruby Vaughn has made a life for herself running a bookshop alongside octogenarian Mr Owen. When she finds herself at Penryth Hall, deep in the Cornish countryside, painful memories emerge of her lost friendship with Tamsyn, now married to the rather sinister Sir Edward Chenowyth.
Although desperate to leave, Ruby's plans are thwarted when Penryth's bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward has been brutally killed in the orchard and fears are rife that a dormant curse has been awoken. Sceptical Ruby doesn't believe in such things, nor in the power the locals swear Ruan Kivell, the Pellar, possesses to break the curse.
But, to protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside this unsettling man to find out what really happened that night.