The tall narrow house, known for more

than a hundred years as The Standish

Place, had been built on the bluffs of Brook-

lyn Heights, overlooking New York Har-

bor, by the noted family that had also

amassed a famous collection--the Standish

paintings--now mysteriously vanished. An

unoccupied wreck, avoided by neighbors

who forbade their children to set foot in it,

the ancient house was an empty shell of

stained walls, broken stairs, and odd areas

of bone-chilling cold.

It was after Antonia Monerieff decided

to move into the house, an unexpected in-

heritance, that frightening things began to

occur: the apartment where she and her

young son had been living was ransacked;

her son, Ewen, had an unexplained fall that

could have been fatal; her cat disappeared;

a fire threatened; her blind tenant and his

guide dog were followed and nearly mur-

dered.

Now thoroughly convinced that she was

the unexplained target of an unknown kill-

er, Antonia realized she must confront the

past she thought was buried, relive the pain

and disgrace and loss from which she had

fled so far so long ago. Because she came,

finally, to see that her past, her present, the

house, the lost paintings, and her love for

the man froth whom she had always run, were somehow all relalted.