What do you know about the occult? Michael Deville knew very little. He is suffering from the effects of a terminal illness and lives with his wife Helena Rose, his only companion, who is a working nurse. During the long periods of time when he finds himself alone, Michael occupies himself by reading through old papers and documents that he found in the spare room, some of which were decidedly unusual. Michael finds himself experiencing particularly disturbing hallucinations that seem to be connected in some indefinable way to the strange manuscripts he had discovered. Are they dreams; or perhaps visions of times from a distant past? Times that held him trapped in history – his history? What is the connection between The Count and the Convent of the Golden Orb? Who is the Man in Black?