Josie Price has given up much of her life for the sake of the wealthy Haddeley family. She works with them, lives with them and knows their secrets. So when a young man, Luke, appears and claims, shockingly, to be the son of Kit Haddeley's late wife Alice, Josie tries to help the Haddeleys come to terms with the family ghosts they hoped had been laid to rest.

But Luke's arrival casts shadows on both the past and the future. Above all it is the ghost of Alice Haddeley which hangs most heavily over the family. Through Luke, she seems to demand to be both mourned and revenged.

With her intimate knowledge of the family past, it is Josie who holds the key to the mystery of Alice, and it is Josie, beset by guilt, who must resolve the destructive inheritance which Luke brings in his wake.