When Dick Truscott becomes manager of a smugglers' inn in Horracombe, Cornwall, England he is puzzled by the continuing spate of nasty accidents and curious deaths. They seem too frequent for natural causes or sheer coincidence. Who or what is responsible? As the long hot summer draws on, tension and fear grow to boiling point - yet still the deaths continue. Tearing the small community apart, the dark ferment beneath Horracombe pushes events to a shocking climax.