Somewhere in the Black House is a presence so intrusive it must be a ghost. Alfred Munday, an anthropologist, and his wife, Emma, have left Africa after a long period in a tiny, remote village. They arrive in an English village deep in the Dorset countryside and almost immediately sense the haunting presence of a lovely woman neither of them can name. Their marriage has been made uneasy by their African experience and they do not confide their suspicions. Emma receives strange commands from the spectral woman, but it is left to Alfred to carry out the commands and manage the complex bewilderments of this new village with its mood of threat. In doing so, he begins to understand how his marriage and study have exiled him and how a return home means a return to older fears and desires. --Publisher.