In this the second novel in the series of 'The Herries Chronicles' the story is taken up by Rogue Herries' daughter. Newly born Judith is found by eccentric Squire Gauntry in the chilled sombre ruin of a house on a bitter winters night, her parents having died at her birth. She is the natural heir to both her parents' temperaments. With the wilfulness of her mother and the stubbornness of her father she is redeemed by a compulsion to tell the truth and a willingness to help anyone she loves in time of trouble or distress.These character traits will lead her into marriage with dark and dangerous George Paris and help her to steer an honest path when the family are divided by a trivial quarrel which splits the Herries family for most of her life. Judith is drawn into the fray more than once, as well as having a private life that is fraught with disappointment and, at some times, despair. Later in life she escapes the Herries clan and flees to Paris to have a child and the circumstances of the birth appear to change her attitude to life. She will go back to the country she loves and have no further dealings with the monied side of the family.But when Walter Herries comes north with the ambition of starting his own empire Judith must defend those she loves and there will be death before this antagonism is resolved.