When Nora Tamasin arrived in Australia she found herself under the guardianship of the powerful, terrifying, but irresistibly fascinating Charles Herrick, known as the Lynx. Everyone about her appeared to be obsessed with gold, and the compulsion to search for it drove people from their homes to privation and even death. Stirling Herrick wanted it because his father did; and the Lynx himself was determined to find it because it was necessary for his plan of revenge.

 

Caught up in a violent world where life was held cheap—she had seen a man shot dead for attempted rape—while loving Stirling, Nora is overwhelmed, fascinated and horrified by the mighty Lynx. Unable to escape, she becomes involved in his schemes which bring her back to England and the ancient mansion Whiteladies owned by the ineffectual Sir Hilary Cardew, whose daughter Minta is his heiress.

 

Minta's story is a tragic one. Attracted by Stirling and the vital Nora, she does not realize until too late why they have come to Whiteladies. When understanding dawns, she begins to suspect that someone is trying to murder her and gradually learns of the link which binds her and her house to that of the Lynx and his, and that expiation for her grandfather's sin will be demanded of her.

 

Set in the wild Australian gold country and in a gracious English mansion, this is a story of violent emotions, of great injustice and a grudge which lasted a lifetime. It is a story of love, hatred and the unrelenting search for gold and revenge, and the effect this had on a group of people who lived beneath—and could not escape from—the shadow of the Lynx.