Catherine 'Cate' Gowdie. All she wants is to be a souler like other Gowdie women. Each of them rescued a trapped soul, one who brought them love and joy. But Cate's the odd one, the family failure, the one the magical legacy passed by. Crushed, she wanders to the wild Cornish coast. Perhaps she'll find meaning there, in the abandoned vicarage she's converting to an herbal apothecary.

Bastiaan de Heykoop Carew. An unwelcome child who came with a viscount's second wife, he grew to manhood in the shadow of his father's misdeeds. Smuggling, treason, murder: even becoming a priest didn't release Bas from the family's dark trade. In 1813, he met the death his life had led him to, by drowning in stormy seas within sight of his own church. Finally free...or is he?

Deep in an enchanted grove and watered by a sacred spring, Trederkyn Church was holy ground centuries before Bas died there and Cate went there to live. Now their fate lines?one broken, one aimless?have improbably crossed. Desire consumes them, but ancient magic demands the ultimate sacrifice for love.