In the summer of 1889, Elizabeth Troy, a

young widow, steps offa train at a remote

station in Cornwall. She is looking for

Pallas House, the ancestral home of her

late husband. The circumstances that have

brought her to this lost and peaceful valley

in the corner of England are bizarre

enough, but they pale beside those she is

about to face.

She plans to stay a month or so and then

return to her calling as a nurse. But she is

stunned to learn that her husband, Bill,

who died on their wedding day, has left

her the entire Pallas Estate--three and a

half thousand acres--in addition to thrcc

tin mines and a house filled with treasures.

Immediately, she is branded the "fur-

riner," the interlopcr, the usurper, and

must endure the bitter--albeit under-

standable--wrath of Bill s older sister,

Morwenna, who raised him and for the

last thirty years has siuglehandedly man-

aged the estate--so badly that it is near

ruin when Elizabeth takes over.