Listening to the laughter, the sounds of children playing, Harriet and David would reach for each others hand, and smile, and breathe happiness. Four children, a beautiful old house, the love of relatives and friends, Harriet and David Lovatts life is a glorious hymn to domestic bliss and old-fashioned family values. But when their fifth child is born, a sickly and implacable shadow is cast over this tender idyll. Large and ugly, violent and uncontrollable, the infant Ben, full of cold dislike, tears at Harriets breast. Struggling to care for her new-born child, faced with a darkness ...