Believing the remote Black Swan Inn, with its idyllic waterside location, could provide a romantic feature for her Cornish magazine, editor Loveday Ross, accepts an invitation to interview Marika Sweet. But the inn is not the idyllic creak-side hostelry Loveday had imagined.

It's a dirty, derelict, boarded up building - and there is no sign of Marika. A friendly neighbour, Millicent Sproat, reveals the inn is now in the hands of notorious local criminals, the Clemo brothers.

Unable to resist exploring the old place, Loveday sneaks in. She does not see her attacker approaching from the shadows. A pain sears through her head as the blackness engulfs her and she crashes to the floor. Her policeman boyfriend, Detective Inspector Sam Kitto, is concerned for her safety, and warns her to leave the unsavoury brothers for the police to deal with, but that's not Loveday's way. Then there's a murder ... and more people start getting hurt. Could the Clemo's old sailing ship, the Arabella, provide the key to solving the mystery?