When David Hurst's mother dies in London, he is surprised to discover that she has owned - and left to him - a house in a small French town. The previous owner, a Dr. Herault, had in turn willed the house to David's mother, presumably for services she rendered his daughter Madeleine in unsuccessfully trying to prevent her death during the German Occupation during World War II. But upon his arrival in France, David finds his presence setting off a chain of events, including murder, over which he has no control and whose sinister meanings he cannot understand. Why is he being courted by Marcel Carrier, the town's richest and most powerful citizen? What secrets are being kept from him by his lawyer, Jacques Gautier, and whom might Gautier be trying to protect? Who are Nicole and Helen, the two young and beautiful but very different women living in Carrier's chateau? Does the monstrous house that is David's inheritance contain the clue to these mysteries? And, if so, where is Madame Desgranges, the aged chatelaine, who has become the self-appointed guardian of the house?