Upon the mysterious recommendation of a friend, Charles Harkness embarks on a journey to Treliss, a Cornish seaside town possessed of breathtaking natural beauty and brimming with local intrigue. Feeling an unusual sense of bravado, the timid and sensitive Harkness inserts himself into a domestic conflict in Treliss, whose instigator is a sadistic man with shocking red hair.

In the course of trying to extricate himself from a precarious situation, Harkness submits to a series of trials that will leave him forever changed.