After a twenty-year absence, Merlyn Cantelo returns to Leeds to attend his late aunt Clarissa?s funeral. Far from being welcomed back into the fold of his large and quarrelsome family, he is viewed by many with suspicion and distrust ? especially since his timely reappearance has thwarted the prospect of a tidy inheritance. However, all is more complex than it seems. The teenage Merlyn only fled his home at the vehement insistence of his sometimes clairvoyant aunt, who foresaw for him a life blighted by violence and death. Moreover, the root of this danger supposedly lies somewhere within the family? Merlyn knows that if he is to discover whether his aunt?s fears were justified, he must come to terms with his tragic past ? and delve into the murky history of the Cantelo family.