Robert Montague, a fiery preacher with an adventurous past, is a perfect catch for any girl in the parish of Ravenshill. Stockbroker Cuthbert Armitage certainly thinks so and sets his daughters, Cassie and Pippa, into competition for the minister's attention. But Montague is not all he seems to be, as Cassie, his pretty, biddable bride, discovers soon after the wedding. Trapped in a dangerous marriage, and an unwitting partner in financial fraud, Cassie finds her only ally in the servant Nancy Winfield and her only friend in Allan Hunter, manager of the local ironworks. Together, they hold her future in their hands. The dark currents that run beneath the smooth surface of Cassie's conventional Victorian marriage, and the power of an evil man over all around him, lead first to disaster and then to tragedy.