A romantic melodrama and one of H. Rider Haggard's most poignant love stories. Joan Haste, a beautiful but illegitimate woman whose mother died when she was a few years old (and her father is unknown) is raised by her terrible, self-serving aunt and uncle. Joan meets navy Captain Henry Graves in the ruins of a crumbling church after Joan has spotted a jackdaw nest up on the wall of a falling-down bell tower and is unable to reach it. Henry, who is passing by and is immediately taken in by ...