In a landscape where medieval kings used to hunt, lime trees cast thankful shadows on a hot June day, an actress strolls around practising her lines and the ‘Earl of Clarendon’ public house offers sanctuary, fine fare and just a hint of deviousness, Alba White is staying at Kingsbourne Manor as a guest of Dr John Sunday.

It sounded idyllic when she had been invited but now she is here, the reality is anything but idyllic; because the other guests, as well as the villagers themselves, have taken none too kindly to Dr John’s wealth nor his new flame.

As Alba’s stay at Kingsbourne Manor progresses from the straightforward unwelcome, to the unpleasant and finally, most dramatically, to disaster, she wishes she had never come. Indeed, her journey to the house had almost been trying to tell her to stay away. Yet, she had come and it falls to Alba to hunt out the truth as to what has happened.

But is the truth, ultimately, what Alba should have been searching for?