Follows aging novelist Vida Winter, who enlists a young writer to finally tell the story of her life including her mysterious childhood spent in Angelfield House, which burned to the ground when she was a teenager.

The story of the residents of Angelfield House and follows ageing novelist Vida Winter, who enlists a young writer to finally tell the story of her life - including her mysterious childhood spent in Angelfield House, which burned to the ground when she was a teenager.—Diane Setterfield

Journalist Margaret Lea visits reclusive, dying authoress Vida Winter to write her biography and is shocked by a burn mark on her palm. Vida explains her real name is Adeline March and she had a twin sister Emmeline. After the Second World War they are brought up in a large country mansion by their spaced out mother Isabelle and equally unstable uncle Charles, running wild, and Isabelle brings in governess Hester Barrow to - unsuccessfully - tame them, leading to the girls being parted. As Hester elopes with the local doctor and Isabelle and Charles die, the girls continue to live in the - officially haunted - house. In the present, Margaret, who has visited the burnt out house and is starting to believe in ghosts, learns why Vida's most famous book, The Thirteenth Tale only consisted of twelve stories.—don @ minifie-1