When Louella Lloyd arrives at Courtney Hall, she is greeted by Lady Courtney with undisguised hostility, Sir Hugh with pained bewilderment and Georgiana with pleasure. But perhaps the most disturbing personality at the Hall is Bassett Courtney. Louella soon realizes that Lady Courtney's hatred springs from the closely-guarded secret surrounding her mother's connection with the Courtney family some years before Louella's birth. Only the friendship of Georgiana and Charles Corby sustain Louella when, suspected of theft, she becomes a prisoner of her fear of Bassett, Master of Courtney.