Peter Ackroyd's novel explores the disruption caused when Theodore Cadmus, a mysterious visitor from the obscure Mediterranean island of Caldera, settles into the peaceful English village of Little Camborne. The arrival of this enigmatic stranger particularly unsettles two cousins, Miss Finch and Miss Swallow, who had carefully constructed quiet, conventional lives away from their troubled pasts. As Cadmus takes residence in the village, the carefully maintained equilibrium of the community begins to unravel, setting in motion a chain of events that will reshape the fates of everyone around him.
