Briony has a secret lover. She has known him all her life and often talks to him - mentally, because she belongs to a family whose members have the ability to exchange thoughts at a distance. It seems to her that this man is one of her three second cousins, but she doesn’t know for sure, since he never identified himself, but only promised that he would show up sooner or later.

After the death of her father, Briony returns to the family estate of Ashley Court and learns that in the last minutes of her life her father tried to warn her of some danger. Finding out what lies behind his mysterious words: “The paper, it's in William's creek... The cat, there's a cat on the floor. Map. Letter...” - the girl begins to understand that her fate is somehow connected with the events that took place on the estate nearly one and a half hundred years ago.

Mary Stewart is one of the most famous writers in the world. Her books sell millions of copies. M. Stewart's novels amazingly combine an intellectual detective story and a romantic story.