ON A BARREN COAST, young heiress Miss Temple awakes from a fever to discover herself friendless, alone and having shot her fiance stone dead. Fleeing from suspicious villagers and attacks by 'wolves', Miss Temple finds herself with a most unlikely travelling companion in the shape of the seductive and deadly Contessa di Lacquer-Sforza.
Meanwhile, assassin Cardinal Chang and surgeon Dr Svenson are following an orgy of destruction and corruption, involving books of blue glass, to the ruins of Harschmort House, where a mysterious and vile volume is being hunted by a diabolical cabal bent on world dominion.
As Miss Temple, Cardinal Chang and Dr Svenson uncover further devilish treachery, so the terrifying secrets contained in The Dark Volume are revealed one by one.