Mathilda Gillespie’s body was found nearly two days after she had taken an overdose and slashed her wrists with a Stanley knife. But what shocked Dr Sarah Blakeney the most was the scold’s bridle abscuring the dead woman’s face, a metal contraption grotesquely adorned with a garland of nettles and Michaelmas daisies. What happened at Cedar House in the tortured hours before Mathilda’s death?

          The police assume that the coroner will return a verdict of suicide. And even Mathilda’s close family accept that illness must have driven her to commit the desperate final act. Only Dr Blakeney, it seems, doubts the verdict. Until it is discovered that Mathilda’s diaries have disappeared…..