One hot day in Elizabethan York, young Nell Appleby is trapped in
a wooden chest, and a horror of the stifling dark - and of the
man who trapped her - dogs her for the rest of her life. Wed to
the sadistic Ralph Maskewe, Nell must find joy where she can,
until the return of her childhood sweetheart offers a chance of
flight to the New World. Will Nell risk all to escape the dark at
last?
Four and a half centuries later, Tess and her small son Oscar
move to York. Eager to start a new life, away from her
overbearing and manipulative husband, Martin, Tess tries to put
her marriage behind her. But time in York has a way of shifting
strangely, and memories of a past that is not her own begin to
surface with disturbing effect. Living two lives, torn between
two worlds, Tess must unlock the secrets of the past before she
can free herself - and Nell - once and for all.