Alone in London and tired of the social whirl and fortune hunters, beautiful heiress Amarantha Stanhope accepts her eccentric Uncle Cyrils offer to live with him in Cornwall. Amarantha just wants some peace and quiet and believes the silent moors will be ideal.
Uncle Cyril studies ancient Celtic lore and history, and his mesmerizing tales of King Arthur and Celtic pagan rites help to keep Amaranthas mind off her melancholia. Her loneliness dissipates when she meets Tamlane Adair, Bodmin Moors darkly handsome rector.
Drawn against her will to the Scottish rector, Amarantha soon finds there is more than meets the eye to the brooding clergyman. Suspecting him of being involved in smuggling, Amarantha is determined to discover Tamlanes secrets and the mystery surrounding the villagers stories about the dark beast who roams the moors at night.
'O, I forbid ye, maidens a; that wear gold in your hair, To come or go by Carterhaugh for young Tamlane is there.'
'Twas not Robert Burns's legendary elfin knight who greeted Amarantha upon her arrival at her folklorist uncle's Cornish mansion, but the dark and wild-haired Tamlane Adair. The Scotsman's languorous movements enthralled her, and the rumors of his nighttime rides across the Bodmin Moor only heightened the virile man's mystery.
