Folklore, myth and fantasy are unusual areas of practice for a lawyer. Dan Aysgarth, a personable young solicitor, finds he has to deal with all these as well as more mundane matters when appointed to manage and rescue a struggling firm of solicitors in a 1980s Dorset town. Its sole proprietor has recently died in mysterious circumstances leaving his office in a chaotic and almost Dickensian state. Dan needs his sense of humour and apparently inexhaustible patience to placate irate clients and deal generally with a huge list of problems, most of them serious but some absurdly comic. He also has to rally periodically unhelpful staff in his bold but definitely uphill attempt at rescue.
Meanwhile the town itself is incensed at the conduct of Jack Athlingham, local landowner and a prime client of the firm, who is arrogantly pursuing a planning application for construction of a prestigious golf course and hotel in a nearby outstandingly beautiful and much loved location. This situation is complicated by the fervent opposition of Jack’s feisty sister, alluring novelist Aerona Athlingham, who nevertheless becomes Dan’s firm friend. However, local gossip soon suggests that the friendship is more than platonic.
Aerona begins to have disturbing and often lurid dreams in which a colourful and courageous woman leader, perhaps even resembling herself, seems to have led successful local opposition to marauding invaders in the far distant past. Hints begin to be dropped by some respected elderly local folk about long forgotten legends relating to past events and people, some perhaps involving even the development site itself, none of which Dan dismisses.
Much more than dry legal procedures may be needed to unravel some dark mysteries and defeat Jack’s outrageous schemes.