Clare Royland uses her fantasies of the past as a means to escape the pain of the present. But when she finds the present - and her part in it - can no longer be ignored, the past she has unleashed can no longer be controlled. A powerful drama unfolds, set against a background of the Scottish oil industry, intrigue and fraud in the City. As Clare's marriage becomes more sterile, she is drawn into a relationship with Neil, a passionate conservationist opposed to her husband's views on oil, money and land. But she is also drawn ever-closer to the life of Isobel of Fife, Countess of Buchan, a contemporary of Robert Bruce, who lived in Scotland six hundred years before Claire was born.