Edwin, a once promising, imaginative poet, burnt out by Bohemia and myriad false trails and trials; and, his assistant, companion and much younger lover, Laura, find themselves on a quest at a country house in Norfolk. Over centuries, a family, the Agnews, had a penchant for, and compelling interest in, the Hermetic quest pursued through the medium of alchemy but this tradition for reasons not understood had died out in the nineteenth century. Sir Henry Agnew's poetic account of the mysteries had stalled, unfinished at his death, and then disappeared and his accomplished daughter's text though published had been mysteriously recalled and burnt presumably at Sir Henry's request. Was there a key to this mystery and could the line be reawakened and re-imagined? For Edwin believes that the spiritual tradition that is the Hermetic is a vital clue in reawakening humanity to its rightful understanding of itself - god bearing beings enfolded in a living and gifted creation