An atmospheric and powerful early manuscript from one of Britain's best-loved storytellers published for the first time by Seven House; Academic Michael Bowater arrives in the small village of Ballacombe in Devon to recuperate from a near-breakdown precipitated by the suicide of one of his students, and problems in his marriage. Within days he finds himself caught up in the village's dark secrets: years before, a young girl disappeared, her body never found. A visiting journalist seems determined to resurrect the case, and re-open old wounds. Tormented by hallucinations and premonitions of violence, Bowater is reluctantly drawn into a disturbing web of intrigue and suspicion...