Three young women from three generations become inextricably involved in deceit, murder and romance when they meet the wealthy Thorncroft family of Ravenslea Manor in the beautiful English county of Devon. 1833-1835 Bridget O'Grady. When their father is viciously murdered in Dublin, 17-year-old Bridget and her 19-year old brother, Michael, find themselves in a state of virtual poverty. They flee to England where her brother is unjustly incarcerated. Bridget, apprehensive and alone, finds employment with the Thorncroft family to care for an orphaned boy of 7 months old. When the child is kidnapped, an old secret is suddenly revealed. Justice finally prevails and Bridget's life takes on a new perspective. 1871-1876 Elizabeth Chandler. 20-year-old Elizabeth takes on the task of caring for the wife of the heir to Ravenslea Manor. When tragedy strikes and a court case takes place, Elizabeth becomes indelibly involved with the Thorncroft family with its mysterious past and dangerous present. 1903-1904 Catherine Ellison. 19-year-old Catherine is hired by the Thorncroft family to reclassify their extensive library. During this time, her life takes a thrilling and romantic turn. However, one member of the family shows an unwarranted hostility towards Catherine. It is only when the beautiful Ravenslea Manor itself is threatened, does the hostility finally end and Catherine fulfills her dream.

In the summer of 1815, Tristan Davenport, Viscount Henge is tired of racketing around London. He goes to his uncle's Sussex estate, Ravenslea, in the hope that his uncle, Sir Richard Fanshaw, will teach him a bit about estate management. There, Tristan finds a warm, loving family, and is made welcome by all except one daughter, Anna....

When French vineyard owner and man of the house Charles Beaufort is thrown in prison for the smuggling of contraband from France to England, he leaves his family and their vineyard with little hope of survival. Sophie, his English-born wife, is resourceful, however, and she arranges for a close friend of the family to help her and the two Beaufort daughters work the land. Soon, Sophie decides it would be good for her eldest daughter, Yvette, to broaden her horizons and see other parts of Europe. She sends Yvette to a manor in Buckinghamshire, England, far from the familiar French culture she knows and loves. She is to play companion to the lady of the house, Mrs. Constance Devereux. Life in England is not what Yvette's mother would have hoped, as the young woman is soon encircled by deceit, frustration, and even a terrifying death threat. Yvette is a hesitant player in the intrigues of Devereux Manor. She must find a way back to her home, but will the house and its mystery let her leave?

Widely acknowledged as one of the most important English writers of the last century, Angela Carter's work stands out for its bawdiness and linguistic zest, its hospitality to the fantastical and the absurd, and its extraordinary inventiveness and range. Her life was as vigorously modern and unconventional as anything in her fiction. This is the story of how Angela Carter invented herself - as a new kind of woman and a new kind of writer - and how she came to write such seductive and distinctive masterworks as The Bloody Chamber, Nights at the Circus, and Wise Children. Because its subject so powerfully embodied the spirit of the times, the book also provides a fresh perspective on Britain's social and cultural history in the second half of the twentieth century. It examines such topics as the 1960s counterculture, the social and imaginative conditions of the nuclear age, and the advent of second wave feminism. Author Edmund Gordon has followed in Angela Carter's footsteps - travelling to the places she lived in Britain, Japan, and the USA - to uncover a life rich in adventure and incident. With unrestricted access to her manuscripts, letters, and journals, and informed by interviews with Carter's friends and family, Gordon offers an unrivalled portrait of one of the twentieth century's most dazzlingly original writers. This sharply written narrative will be the definitive biography for years to come.