Tassie Smith's childhood is violently disrupted when a stranger appears on her mother Grace's, doorstep claiming to have inherited the family house and fortuneIt emerges that he is Tassie's long-lost brother, and, after a tricky start, shesoon begins to hero-worship him. But as her life unfolds it becomes apparent that there is very much more to brother Max than meets the eye, and that he has some powerful enemies - not least the man with whom Tassie herself falls in loveReay Tannahill uses wonderful period detail to evoke the Highlands, Glasgow and turn-of-the-century office life in London in this splendid story of family passion and skulduggery.