Book dealer Simon Chance’s life is thrown into disarray when his wife Robin leaves him for another woman.

She has come to terms with her secret past and walks out, hinting that their home Paycocke’s House has a creepy and undiscovered history, too.

With reconciliation out of the question, Simon turns to his daughters Cassie and Alex for support, but they, too, harbour secrets.

Simon’s life is further complicated when Martin Sparrow, an ex-colleague he has not seen for a decade, turns up with revelations concerning a Roman manuscript unseen for two thousand years and an agenda of his own.

A meeting with local teacher Eleanor Simmons leads Simon to question the history of the house, and things become even more tangled when he realises he is falling in love with her.

Together they discover that Paycocke’s House is not all it seems to be, and that episodes in its Tudor and Edwardian past have contributed to an underlying malaise which Simon must resolve.