1786: Joseph Bloxham is a self-made man and something of a star in fashionable coffee-house society. Some, though, like the sceptical Noakes, take a dim view of his shady business ethics. Bloxham has used his ill-gotten gains to obtain the old Geap Manor, paying no heed to the warnings of Noakes and his friend Duncalfe. But when Bloxham begins hearing ghastly sounds in the newly-installed panelling of his drawing room, it seems he might have more than just a mouse hiding in his wainscoting.