It is 1798, and Hillary Belsingham, recently returned from Constantinople, finds himself once more in Newcastle, in the North East of England. His mother has died and he must settle matters. But why has he been away for so long? Like his father, he is a rake, albeit a reluctant one, well aware of the wheel of joy and misery to which he finds himself bound. Unlike his father, however, he possesses a sensibility that knows there is a home truth he must face, a truth from which he has always suspected he'd been running. Now, back home and with children still disappearing in Hodburn Wood, he finds he can no longer ignore what lies in the heart of his soul.