Leighton Chapel, the son of a wealthy London merchant, follows a king into battle. It becomes The Seven Year War. Phoebe Fox, a serving maid and his lover, waits those long years. Leighton returns with a wife, Lady Francesca. Though heartbroken, it is Phoebe who becomes the surrogate mother to their baby boy, Wynn. Sir Leighton subjects his son to a cloistered life style in Heorot Hall, a great Manor House on the Sussex Downs. In the loving hands of a skeletal staff and the long absences of a crazed father, Wynn grows into manhood. Unexpectedly he meets Tranquil Saxon (Trill). Misplaced, she has run away from Fayremorn, a nearby village. The superstitious rustics are fearful of Heorot all. The novice lovers must contend with Leighton's rage and the secret of his bizarre nocturnal visits to the crept.