Only Willoughby Tetford the American self-made millionaire was shrewd enough to have any misgivings when his beautiful daughter Willow married the handsome English aristocrat. Willow herself seventeen innocent & deeply in love with her new husband Rowell Rochford had complete trust & confidence in the future as she arrived at Rochford Manor in Engl&. & when Rowells matriarchal French grandmother handed her the keys of the house & told she was the new Chatelaine Willow believed she held the keys not only to the multitude of rooms of which she was now the mistress but also to love & happiness. On her arrival she is greeted warmly by her four brothers-in-law: Tony quiet & studious; Pelham teasing & flirtatious the spoilt Francis & the sensitive Rupert. But she has no inkling of the obsession which grips old Lady Rochford because of events in the past to which she Willow is ignorant. Nor does she realise the terrible repercussions the obsession will have on her own life.