'Utmost quiet required for TV personality' said the advertisement that TV reporter Jemima Shaw's secretary placed in The Times. However, a cryptic letter from Charles Beauregard, the owner of her holiday cottage is an omen that the highlands might not quite be the haven she is hoping for. Sure enough, when Jemima arrives it is to find a sinister island, Charles dead and a bitter family feud being fought on the Beauregard estate. As Jemima fights her attraction to Henry Beauregard she also has to face the fact that he is a suspect in his nephew's death. But what is the connection to the militant Red Rose movement? And why has the beautiful Clementina barricaded herself in the castle and started calling herself Queen? Jemima will need all her charm and intelligence to unravel this mystery.