This is the story of Henry Aylwin of Raxton Hall, the son of a well-known family, which is one of the most powerful landowners in England, who, when a boy and temporarily crippled, falls in love with Winifred Wynne, the daughter of the church organist. Raised since earliest childhood by one relative in Wales, Winifred often comes to visit her alcoholic father and starts a friendship with Henry that grows into love and adoration. Henry's mother takes an aversion to the girl, and after several tragic accidents the couple are separated, Winifred vanishes, and Henry begins a long and heartbreakingly painful hunt to discover her whereabouts, in life or death, helped by an insightful gipsy girl, Sinfi Lovell.