Spring 1810. Young parson Tobias Campion is settling in at his new parish in Moreton St Jude. Although he loves the quiet village lfe, Tobias has a troubling sense that all is not quite as it seems. The suspicious death of a poacher, the untimely demise of a local aristocrat and a mysterious attack on Tobias himself confirms his previous misgivings; malign influence is at work in the supposedly sleepy hamlet. And then someone close to his heart disappears.