"New widowed after an unhappy marriage, Mary Panton finds tranquillity in a beautiful villa high in the hills above Florence. From this haven of peace, contempates the prospect of a second marriage to the kindly and distinguished Sir Edgar Swift. But a sudden and tragic rush of events destroys Maryś tenous serenity and, thrown headlong into a nightmare of violence, she realises that to deny love, with all its manfold risks, is it to deny life itself."