Orphaned and widowed within weeks, Linnet MacLellan journeys to Scotland to seek the protection of her late husband Duncan's kin. Instead of the happy home and loving family she hopes to find, she meets hostility and disbelief. From the moment that the telegram to Jura House announcing her arrival goes astray and she is almost run down by an unknown rider Linnet is drawn deeper and deeper into problems. To her emotional distress she finds that her late husband's brother Dougal is his exact twin, while the two aged aunts who raised both boys detest her and want her gone. Simon Fordyce, their closest neighbor, inhabits the Castle, the palatial house the MacLellans regard as their rightful home and intend to reclaim, no matter what the law says. To make things more tense, Fordyce is intent on putting a mill into the valley in direct contravention to the traditional farming industry Dougal wishes to revive. Tension reaches a fever pitch as both men court Linnet, then all is unsettled even more when someone starts making attempts against Linnet's life.