York 1577: Hawise Aske smiles at a stranger in the market & sets in train a story of obsession & sibling jealousy of love & hate & warped desire. Drowned as a witch Hawise pays a high price for that smile but for a girl like her in Elizabethan York there is nowhere to go & nowhere to hide. Four & a half centuries later Grace Trewe who has travelled the world is trying to outrun the memories of being caught up in the Boxing Day tsunami. Her stay in York is meant to be a brief one. But in York Grace discovers that time can twist & turn in ways she never imagined. Drawn inexorably into Hawise's life Grace finds that this time she cannot move on. Will she too be engulfed in the power of the past?