Patrick, a former journalist and biographer, stays at the grand old Manor House. The former residence of Arthur LaSalle, he wishes to write his story, using the family history and reference books kept there. Following the collapse of his marriage and subsequent mental breakdown, this is a chance to re-establish himself.
At night, as he sleeps, he is visited by a woman, dressed in black lace with a veil, she comes each night; touching, looking, entrancing him. As days go by she inhabits his dreams, taking his heart and stealing his mind; she asks for only one thing - 'The Truth.' But what is the truth in this history?
It was 1841 when the wealthy landowner and philanthropist Arthur LaSalle announced his engagement to the society beauty Catherine Tremayne. Although LaSalle was 46 and Catherine only 19, the match was seen as a good one in those years. A short engagement was followed by a handsome, if modest, marriage. It was not to be a happy one. Arthur was concerned with his business and had no time for society or frivolity, as he saw it. Trapped in the exquisite prison that was Manor House, Catherine tried to adapt, to please in some way. Then, at the end of 1842, there it was. The endurance that was the bedchamber produced a child, a son, Sebastian. This pleased Arthur.
It isn't clear if this event brought husband and wife closer, or even a modicum of long-term happiness. They were seldom seen and nothing is recorded. What we do know resumes in 1846 December 12th; on this day Sebastian LaSalle died of typhoid fever. Mourned and buried on December 15th, Catherine and Arthur would be placed in the ground by his side on January 8th. Violence and blood are known to be true; whose madness wielded the blade a matter of conjecture.
The popular account, stated that Catherine was riven by grief and gripped by madness; Arthur, the gentleman, defending himself too late to survive, but too strongly for Catherine. Others spoke of his violent rages, as the gossips raked his name through the mud; not with any certainty, but enough to taint the memory. For society, the whole affair was ugly enough, without any need for blame.
A haunted dream and a waking nightmare, Patrick Nichols find love, hate and obsession in a dark history that will become his future.