One dark and stormy night, a terrified young mother seeks refuge at the home of her former nanny, old Tam, a fisherwoman in St Ives. Distraught, Louise Polmar begs Tam to care for baby Mariella whilst she takes little Patrick to the safety of her own family in France. Louise never returns, and Ella grows up in the little hovel, unaware that she is one of the Polmars of Porthminster Hall. When she is eighteen Tam tells Ella the truth. She decides to make the acquaintance of her family and try to learn the fate of her mother and brother. Are they still alive? Why did Louise leave her, never to return? There are dark secrets at Portminster Hall. As Ella begins to unravel the mysteries of past and present, she finds herself in mortal danger. The same mortal danger from which her mother had fled more than twenty years ago...