When Richard Pakehurst's distraught grandson, Hugo, visits him in his beautifully situated, crumbling mansion house on the banks of Beaulieu River, he is forced to confront his own past: the bad blood of the family, the curses brought on by past misdeeds: cursed forever by violating the Old Gods, trespassing on and plundering ancient lands. The family has a history of trespass and misuse. Now unkempt and hungover, handsome grandson Hugo has come to apologise for the shame he has brought upon the family. While Richard Pakehurst waits for Hugo to confess his sins, he tells him how the family is already steeped in illegitimacy and shame and shows him evidence of his great grandfather, Godfrey Pakehurst's, shameful conduct with the love of his life, and the family's lethal involvement in pursuit of a lost Peruvian treasures buried on a Pacific island. When Hugo finally confesses to his sins they are worse than Richard dreaded: his grandson is quite as bad as any of his ancestors. It must all end. Richard commits the family's past to an incriminating book and leaves it to Fate to end the family curse and see justice done. Fate duly obliges.