After a row with his wife in which she runs out of their cottage during a violent storm, Neil Palmer discovers that the cover to the well in the yard has been smashed by a falling tree which has also brought the telephone line down. Cut off from the nearest house and terrified that she has fallen into the well and drowned, he sets off in her car to fetch help but instead finds himself in a dangerous situation.

As Elizabeth, heavily pregnant, waits for her husband in the huge, echoing house that they plan to buy, she is gradually taken over by the spirit of a long-dead servant girl. Time - that winter afternoon - ceases to exist.

All these weeks I have been helping him... not knowing the truth... I would not allow myself to see it because of the warmth of his arms, his lips, because of his need for me and mine for him, because of love.., she had written. As I looked at the strong down strokes of her pen I sensed her anguish. But what did it mean? When my sister suddenly disappeared after a row with me I did my best to find her, but all I found was her diary...