Set in County Cork, in southern Ireland during the War of Independance of 1920. Danielstown is the country home of Sir Richard Naylor and his wife, Lady Myra. The Naylors belong to a class of Anglo-Irish aristocracy known as the ascendancy, whose way of life - moneyed, graceful, essentially feudal - is coming to an end.

Behind the facade of set-piece dinners, tennis parties and army camp dances, all know that the end is approaching. Meanwhile, Lady Myra's niece, Lois, who is being courted by a captain in the British army, is lured by the menacingly playful and violent young man who hides at an old water-mill on the Danielstown estate.