North Wales, 1945. Twelve-year-old Jackie is an evacuee, Iolo, her host, is touched by Gwyn ap Nudd, the Welsh god of the chase, and from him Jackie learns hunting's ancient secret lore. She knows every hound in his pack, every stream and covert in their valley, and by sleeping in their kennels, understands their dreams. By the war's end she sees herself as more hound than girl.

When her mother comes to reclaim her, Jackie is transplanted to a derelict estate in Westmorland. Its owner, Major Wetheral, is the local Master of Foxhouds. But his English way of hunting flouts the Welsh god's lore, courting disaster for him and the Wetheral line. His troubled fourteen-year-old, Oliver, is fiercely opposed to blood sports, and as the bond between Jackie and Oliver deepens the hunt presents new and frightening challenges for them both.

Can Jackie, through her knowledge of the god, avert the doom that haunts the Wetherals? Or will she be trapped in the fate of an English house and its master?