"The secret of the entire world is whispered here at Eden...." — Since time out of memory, Eden Castle had ridden the storm-swept Devon cliffs like a ghostly figurehead on a ship of the damned. — He was the last Lord of Eden Castle, Thomas Eden, a man of brooding desire and sudden passion ... — She was his servant girl, Marianne Locke, the fiery young beauty who would rather submit to the cruel kiss of the whip than suffer the lust of a man she did not love... From the wild Devonshire coast to the glittering literary salons of London, the tumultuous union of these two proud people hazed a raging tempest of enduring love.