Orphaned and homeless, young Jacoba Ford answers an advertisement for a companion for the Earl of Kilmurdock, a blind and deaf gentleman. She is interviewed and sent to Murdock Castle, that rose massive and splendid from the stern beauty of the Scottish Highlands. But for Jacoba Ford, victim of a cruel hoax, part of a revenge planned by Hamish McMurdock on his uncle, the Earl of Kilmurdock, it was a forbidding place that sheltered the bewildered young orphan as an uninvited--and unwelcome--guest. For the fierce Earl of Kilmurdock had made a passionate vow to ban all women from the great stone walls. And all around the countryside, the people of Clan McMurdock whispered that the Earl's ferocity had put a curse on them--a curse that would only be put to flight the day sweet Love blessed Murdock Castle....