As Melrose Plant sits in a Cornish tearoom, he is served by remarkable young Johnny Wells - waiter, cab driver and amateur magician. Melrose is attempting to escape his Long Piddleton lethargy by renting Seabourne house, positioned high on a promontory overlooking the sea. It looks like the set of a 40s or 50s romantic film, but Melrose is unprepared for the onslaught of memories it triggers. And in examining his own past, he is caught up in the tragic past of its owners, the Bletchley family.