They say Charles Delapore is a dangerous madman. He is locked away and restrained in a brutal asylum. But a new visitor has come from the outside - someone who Charles feels he can trust. He recounts how he came to his ancestral home of Exham Priory; how he sought to restore the priory to its former glory; how he struck up a friendship with Captain Edward Norrys, both seeking solace from a tragedy that unites them. But the fearful locals of Anchester said the family who lived there were inbred demons, and spurn anyone seeking to rebuild the cursed manor. How has Charles come to be be locked away? Because of the rats, he says. But there's a far more disturbing family secret.