Lenore spent her childhood in the Sallongers' Silk House in the heart of the forest She grew up with their children philandering Charles, kind Philip, self-indulgent Julia and crippled Cassie and yet she knows she is not one of the family One day her grandmother tells her the tragic story behind their lives and visiting the place of her mother's death in the Villers-Mure, she meets the Count - a story of love and revenge in remote Italian border country