Alys Weston secretly writes Gothic novels, while her widowed father drinks away her tiny inheritance. After a disillusioning early encounter with the rakish Lord Rayven in Harrogate - in which he came off the worst - she is quite resigned to being a spinster. Several years later, she meets him again in London and he makes it clear that he has not forgotten her - indeed, he dogs her footsteps. But is it for revenge, or some other reason? Is he the hero or the villain of the piece? As Alys becomes unwittingly embroiled in the dark and dangerous rites of a hell-fire club, her very life could hang on the answer...