It's Christmas 1943, and 11 year old Lady Anne Coke has returned to Holkham Hall from Scotland. But her home is now an army base, and Anne is in the care of a hateful new governess, whom she believes to be hiding something. Anne has been told to stay away from certain parts of the house, but when her grandfather is found dead at the bottom of a stairwell, she is determined to uncover the truth. A friend of the Royal Family, Anne Glenconner reimagines her own WWII childhood with this mystery, set in her own family estate.