It is 1628 & Alexander Seaton's happily settled life as a university teacher in Aberdeen is shattered by the arrival in town of a stranger who looks like his twin & who carries a plea for help from Alexander's dead mother's family in Irel&. The family has been placed under a poet's curse threatening death to various members. Elements of the curse have already begun to play out. Reluctantly answering the call Alexander leaves his home & his beloved Sarah & travels to Ulster to find himself among a family torn apart by secrets & long-buried resentments. In the course of seeking out the author of the curse Alexander becomes deeply entangled in a conflict that involves fugitive priests displaced poets rebellious plotters & agents of the king. Confronted by murder within his family he finds the lines between superstition & faith duty & loyalty are becoming increasingly blurred while his Scottish homeland grows ever more remote.