In 1878 Amelia Portbury was sent to prison for causing her mother's death. Although Amelia always maintained Mrs. Ares died from other causes, to the judge and jury, Amelia had much to gain from her mother's death. Amelia had been left an annuity of five hundred pounds per year on her husband's death, on the condition she never remarried, but Amelia had fallen in love with Sam Portbury, causing her mother to revoke the annuity. After 22 years, Amelia is released, and at the same time sinister facts also begin to emerge, and the disturbing truth about past events gradually unfolds...