Lucinda arrives at her father's house; a Gothic hulk bordering the whalers' cottages of Belle Rock and the clashing cliffs that lead down into the sea. It is already clear not all is as it should be.
Elodie La Roche - a survivor of the first French Revolution - has had some bizarre things happen to her since 1789 and now she finds herself sent as a heroine to Haiti to 'keep the colony in line'.