Ashley Lawrence, a young rich widow, after the tragic death of her husband, leads a reclusive life on her estate near London. A certain company is trying to persuade her to sell the land for a project to build a shopping center. Attempts to persuade Ashley to sell are unsuccessful, and the head of the company, thirty-eight-year-old Jake Dare, comes to the estate for the same purpose... From the very beginning, the novel is shrouded in some kind of mystery, a riddle connected with the heroine’s past and keeping the reader in constant suspense.