Theodore Stubb is within his attic, adding another specimen to his extensive collection of insects. As well as an entomologist, he is a master hypnotist. Eleanor ? taken from the sanatorium two months before ? is still haunted, believing that her stillborn child Alastair lives and hides in the shadows. She becomes pregnant again by the hypnotic coercion and ravishment by her father-in-law Theodore. The murder, mystery and intrigue which follow leave dreadful secrets to be uncovered; and thirteen years later, the boy Alastair begins tolose his identity... A gothic terror heralds the climax of dream-like and hallucinatory events, secrets unfolding, both disturbing and astonishing.