When Ludlow Fitch's parents cruelly betray him, he steals away to the country. He arrives in a remote village, where he meets the tall and limping figure of Joe Zabbidou - a pawnbroker with a difference. For Joe trades secrets, not goods. Employed as Joe's assistant, Ludlow records the villagers' fiendish confessions in an ancient leather-bound volume: 'The Black Book of Secrets'.

There's the gravedigger who has been resurrecting bodies; the butcher who made a mouse-meat pie; the wizened bookseller who went to murderous lengths to get her hands on a priceless tome. Ludlow longs to trust his mysterious master, but he senses Joe has much to hide. But then Ludlow Fitch has his own, very dark, secrets...