Cordelia ia a troubled, damaged soul who is only just recovering after some unnamed trauma; she is an actor rehearsing a play and comes to stay in a creepy London mansion flat occupied by her twin sister Caroline and Caroline’s boyfriend Matt. When they leave her alone there Cordelia strikes up a friendship with Frank the charming, but strange and unreliable young man they can hear practising his cello in the upstairs flat – a relationship which quickly becomes very disturbing.

A happy and unbelievably lucky young Irish immigrant, John Lawless, lands a job as the butler of an unconventional millionaire, Biddle. His daughter, Cordelia Drexel Biddle, tires of the unusual antics of her father–especially since the nice young men around town all fear him. Wouldn’t you fear a father-in-law that keeps alligators for pets and teaches boxing at his daily Bible classes?

A mass suicide involving members of a cult takes place in the Canary Islands. Gabriel’s younger sister, Cordelia, who he hasn’t seen for years, was one of the cult followers. Gabriel decides to travel there and find out what happened.