Charity Blackstock tries her accomplished hand at an older form, the period melodrama, which relies here for many of its effects on the locale-- the moors and of Scotland's Inverness-- and to a lesser extent on an actual courtroom case of the early 19th century.

Margaret, an English army officer's daughter with an independent streak, becomes the wife of Ringan Kerr, a man of few words. He is the agent for the Duke of Sutherland and spends much of his time away from her, making the rounds of the shire.

Still she has nothing to regret until eleven years later he is put on trial for culpable homicide, oppression and arson. And for the first time she comes to suspect the man she still loves but has every reason to doubt.