Emma Betony is an elderly lady reluctantly coming to terms with the fact that the rest of her life is to be spent in inaction at Toplady Homes--a serviced London establishment for retired gentlewomen. Salvation appears to arrive in the form of an impassioned plea for help from an old pupil, Grace Aram, who now runs Makeways, a girls school and private nursing home in the west country. When Emma arrives at Makeways, however, it is to discover a community haunted by a malignant force that threatens to call up anew the ghosts of her own past. And when tragedy strikes, Emma finds she must face her own demons if she is to bring a murderer to justice.