After a rather drab existence in an English orphanage Linda Martin is appointed governess to the nine-year-old owner of the Chateau Valmy in the French Alps. During little Philippe's minority the estates are being managed by his crippled uncle Leon, and Leon's handsome son Raoul. All seems delightful, but there are tensions below the smooth surface. One sunny afternoon a bullet is fired in the beechwoods ...and the tensions become terrors.