For journalist Alison MacAteer, the rules are simple- show no pity, feel no pain. However, when she is catapulted face first through the windscreen of her would-be lover's Alfa-Romeo Spider, the certanties that have guided Alison begin to unravel. Convalescent, she is dispatched to a 16th century stately home to report on the filming of a commercial for 'Eternal Summer', Laurene Forth's new fragrence line. As the long days pass she becomes convinced that elements of the story are being witheld from her, and when the corporations new 'face' disappears she determines to learn the truth. But where is this to be found? To make sense of the present, Alison discovers, she must look far into the past, into the shadowy, symbol-laden world of the Elizabethens. Is she proof against Arcadia's lethal enchantments, Alison wonders, or will she join the dance?