A man must protect his family - even from himself . . .
The year is 1911. In the heart of Flanders looms the ancient castle of Montfort, home of Count Andre du Monde. At Vimy Ridge, du Monde is making his first film, a spectacular historical based on Shakespeare's 'Macbeth', but set in the French Revolution, and featuring a real, working guillotine . . .
His friends hope that this summer will cure Andrew of a curious delusion - that his rich young heiress wife means to poison him. He is terrified of her, and she of him. They're both right. For Sabine is a practitioner of folk witchcraft, and Andre is deeply disturbed, dangerous to himself and possibly to others.
Alexander von Reisden, doctor to the mad and Andre's friend, knows he has to help them both. If not, he stands to lose his own wife and son, his work and even life itself . . .