(With apologies to Frank Herbert)
Prologue: Paul Atteridge, Viscount Callander (son and heir to the Duke of Arackley) has been taking advantage of Bonaparte’s exile to Elba to do a grand tour of the continent. Upon reaching LeHavre, his tutor, Reverend Yurburgh, finds a letter waiting for him. Paul is curious, but unsuspecting, and when his tutor later attacks him he is taken by surprise, and knocked unconscious. He wakes to find himself tied up and being carried out to sea in a small skip, operated by his tutor, who keeps muttering, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Your Grace”. But another ship approaches–it is a vessel owned by a couple free traders, led on a resue mission by Paul’s french valet, Guernet. The smugglers leap aboard, and tussle with Reverend Yurburgh, while Guernet cuts Paul free of his bonds. But just as it seems the day is won, Reverend Yurburg, in a desperate attempt to escape, lunges away from the smugglers and knocks Paul into the water. “Your Grace!” he gasps in horror, and that’s the last thing Paul hears before the water swallows him.
Paul has been skulking about the village of Arackley in disguise, for a couple days. He has learned that, as he feared, his father is dead. But the news is worse than that, his mother and little sister Alicia, (described by the villagers as ‘that witch and her changeling child’) have disappeared also, and he himself has been declared dead. The Dukedom has been usurped by his second cousin, Baron Harkenton. The villagers have also spoken in uneasy whispers about ‘that business going on at the home farm’. As Paul is pondering the strangeness of the situation and the villager’s inexplicable behavior (his mother’s interest in herbal remedies had always been welcomed by his father’s tenants, and although his sister is a little odd, she is harmless), he spots a blue-eyed girl who looks hauntingly familiar, although he can’t quite place where he has seen her before. Intrigued, he follows her out onto the moors, only to lose track of her. But just as he is about to give up and return to town, he hears his mother calling out to him. She and Alicia have been hiding out on the moors. They are too terrified to return home, his mother informing him that she believes his father’s death was not really a riding accident, but Paul insists on finding them shelter, and they end up taking refuge in the home of Steven Ferman, a shepherd. Ferman is inhospitable, and a bit mysterious, but the hate in his voice when he speaks of Baron Harkenton convinces Paul that his family will be safe with him.
Paul wants to discover what has been happening on the home farm, so he sets out alone, and discovers to his bewilderment that it has been entirely replanted with flowers. The Baron’s guards almost catch him, and as he is fleeing he is assisted by the blue-eyed girl he has seen before. Once again he follows her out over the moors. Each time he thinks he has lost her track he spots her again, until finally he realizes she is playing with him. The game eventually leads him to a small cottage, which like the girl herself, gives him a haunting sense of familiarity. He sets himself to luring the girl, clearly very shy, out of hiding, and eventually manages to make friends with her. Her name is Rosemary Doone, and from her he learns the truth of what has been happening. Her father, Elijah Doone, was a scientist who worked for his father. During a duty-call on the family head, the Baron had accidentally discovered one of Doone’s experiments, a strain of poppy that had been adapted to the local climate, and an excellent source of opiates. Greedy for position, power and wealth, the Baron had seen the monetary benefits of the new strain, and had conspired with one of the Grand Dukes, to take over the dukedom, and to sell the opium to wounded soldiers and bored aristocrats alike. Doone himself had died a suspicious death, just as had the former duke. Rosemary also explains that her father had never intended the poppies to be used for anything but dire medical necessity, her father and the late Duke’s true plan to improve the lives of the people was a new, improved strain of sheep, and an innovative plan for setting up weaving workshops. The Ferman family had been put in charge of the actual process of breeding and rearing the new sheep.
Now that Paul understands the situation, he has no trouble convincing Steven Ferman and his family to support him in court, so that he can oust the Baron, and return Paul to his rightful inheritance. A chance encounter with free traders reunites Paul with his faithful vallet Geurnet, and now that the villagers have had a chance to learn what life will really be like under the Baron, they too have become disillusioned, and when Paul spreads among them the news that they had been tricked into distrusting the Duchess by the Baron’s deliberate rumormongering, they are ready to support Paul. But the Baron has his own plans. Frustrated by the limited supplies of seed, and lack of understanding found in his hired managers that has led to problems in production, he has gone questing for answers and discovered that Doone had a secret workshop, and a daughter.
Just as Paul is about to reveal his existence to the legal authorities and formally request that his title be restored, he discovers that the Baron has captured Rosemary and plans to force her to reveal the location of her father’s hidden notes and equipment. Convinced that going the proper legal route will not allow him to succeed in time to save her, Paul plans an assault on Arackley Castle, undeterred by the news that a royal prince is visiting, and that the place is completely overrun by guards. Conscripting shepherds, townsmen and even smugglers, he carries out a raid that involves taking advantage of a storm for cover, and blowing up the curtainwall with huge amounts of gunpowder. Once inside, he captures the Baron, and blackmails the Grand Duke to prevent him from interfering.
Now that Paul will be restored to his rightful title, his mother immediately announces that she plans to find him a bride, but Paul refuses, insisting that he can never leave Rosemary Doone. Later, when they are alone, he asks Rosemary if they didn’t perhaps meet as children. She insists that they did not, and Paul is left pondering the marvel of the strange sense of familiarity that he had with her and her father’s cottage workshop. Perhaps the faded memory of a prophetic dream?