Plot summary
The story begins with Michael Rogers, a twenty-two year old, telling the reader about his time as a chauffeur and how he met the architect Rudolf Santonix. He plans to one day have a house built by Santonix. Mike is poor though, and so can't afford to hire Santonix to build the house he wants. Michael explains that he’s a “rolling stone”; he isn't content doing just one thing and so has held down many different jobs over the years. One day he wants to settle down in his dream house with his dream woman, but for now he can't imagine settling down.
Mike is walking along a village road near the Gipsy's Acre property one day when he falls in love with the grounds. He fantasises about one day building a house there with the woman he loves. Curious to see what an auction is like, he goes to the auction for the property. Several people are interested in buying it, but the bid doesn't go high enough and no one ends up getting the property rights. Michael suspects that this is because of the supposed gipsy’s curse over the property.
While walking through the grounds, he meets Fenella (Ellie) Guteman by chance, a wealthy heiress who wants to escape from her world of snobby friends, begging relatives, and restrictive financial advisors. She introduces herself as Fenella "Goodman," not wanting him to know her true identity as an heiress. They get along quite well and it seems like love at first sight. He shares his dream of owning the acre with her and she seems to reciprocate and encourage the idea. Ellie also mentions her lovely hired companion, Greta Andersen. Apparently, Greta has acted like a best friend to her for several years now and is described as very efficient. Mike appears incredibly jealous of their close relationship, despite never actually having met Greta before.
Mike then sees Ellie on and off over the next few weeks before she has to travel abroad for her twenty-first birthday. While away from Ellie, Michael discovers that the property he wants has finally been bought. He also returns to his mother's house to ask her for money to marry Ellie. It's quite clear that he doesn't like his mother and she doesn't like him. The situation reads as though she simply disapproves of his spontaneous lifestyle, but Michael claims that his mother knows him all too well. He leaves without the money.
When Ellie returns, she reveals to Mike that she is in fact, one of the wealthiest women in America and that she was the person who bought Gipsy's Acre. She wants to marry him and help fulfill his dream of building a beautiful house there. She doesn't mind leaving her home and family in America to move to England for him. They get married in a simple civil ceremony, without her family's knowledge. Michael is poor and Ellie fears that her family would not approve of him. When they find out, they are indeed highly disapproving of Mike. They fire Greta for helping arrange the marriage in secret. Regardless, Ellie refuses to leave Michael.
Once married, they hire Santonix to build a mansion for them on the acre.
On the night Ellie and Mike move in, a rock is thrown through their window, telling them to leave the acre. Ellie is shaken by the incident, but not enough to want to move. Ellie entertains the idea of inviting Greta to live with them at the acre, feeling bad for getting her fired, but Michael doesn't like the idea.
Mike and Ellie discover a folly near the cliffs on their property, which they restore and use as a secret getaway.
The newlywed couple spend the next few weeks meeting the villagers. Major Phillpot, the local landowner, although not a wealthy man, is seen as the "God" of the village; he becomes close with Michael. Another villager, Claudia Hardcastle, rides horses and befriends Ellie. They start riding horses together regularly. Ellie reveals that although she is allergic to horses, she takes pills to calm her allergies before riding. She offers them to Claudia, who is also mildly allergic. Later, it is revealed that Claudia is Santonix's half-sister and was once married to one of Ellie's lawyers, Stanford Lloyd.
Meanwhile, an old gipsy woman, Mrs. Lee, continues to warn Mike and Ellie of a curse and instructs them to leave the house they built. Ellie grows increasingly wary of her, so much so that Michael goes to the police station to report Mrs. Lee. He learns that in the past, Mrs. Lee had been bribed with money to terrify other residents. Mike wonders if someone is doing that again.
In the meantime, much to Ellie's chagrin, her American family refuses to leave her alone. Her stepmother, Cora, has moved to the UK to be close to her. Ellie's lawyers also keep in constant contact with her. Her head lawyer, Mr. Lippincott (known to Ellie as ‘Uncle Andrew’) is especially concerned over her marriage to Michael.
When Ellie injures her ankle she needs someone to help take care of her; she persuades Michael to let Greta stay with them. Ellie worries about Michael and Greta, as they don't appear to like each other and even get into a very heated argument one night.
Michael's mother comes to visit them at Gipsy’s Acre when he isn't there; she meets with Ellie and has a short conversation with her. Ellie tells Michael this later and he becomes enraged that his mother came to visit, unbeknownst to him. Ellie is puzzled by his anger.
One day, Ellie goes out horse riding in the morning. She goes alone because Claudia is shopping in London with Greta that day. Before she leaves, Mike suggests that Ellie join him and Major Phillpot at lunch later, which she agrees to. Mike attends an auction with Major Phillpot; since he married Ellie, he can now afford whatever he wants, so he outbids several others to buy a gift for Ellie. After the auction, he thinks he sees Claudia and one of Ellie's lawyers driving away in a car. He thinks it odd, since Claudia was supposed to be shopping at the outlets and the lawyer was supposed to be in America.
While at lunch with Major Phillpot, Mike begins to worry that Ellie has not yet joined them. She never turns up to lunch and when Mike calls Gipsy’s Acre, he learns that she has not yet returned from her morning ride. Mike and Phillpot search the forest around the house; eventually, Mike discovers Ellie's dead body, having sustained no apparent injuries. The local police determine that Ellie died of shock when she was thrown from her horse. Several witnesses come forward, claiming that they saw a woman in the woods at the same time Ellie was riding her horse. The police believe it was Mrs. Lee who scared the horse on purpose and murdered Ellie by accident, not knowing she had a heart condition.
At the inquest, it is revealed that a gold lighter was found in the nearby folly with the initial ‘C’ on it. It could either belong to Claudia Hardcastle, Ellie's riding companion, or Cora, her stepmother. The inquest is inconclusive, because Mrs. Lee does not show up in court.
After the inquest, Michael travels to America to attend Ellie’s funeral with her family and collect his inheritance. While there, he hears that Mrs. Lee has been found dead in a quarry, and Claudia Hardcastle has also died while out riding her horse. He wonders if it can be a coincidence.
From Mr. Lippincott, he also officially learns that Claudia used to be married to Stanford Lloyd, another one of Ellie's lawyers (the one he thought he saw her with that day). Mr. Lippincott asks Mike if he ever knew Greta before meeting Ellie, which he denies. Mr. Lippincott mentions that he has written and sent a letter to Michael – he'll get it upon his arrival back in England.
Before returning to England, Mike goes to visit Santonix on his deathbed in California, his failing health having worsened over the course of the novel. Before Santonix dies, he screams, “You should have gone the other way!” Feeling disturbed by this, Mike returns to the UK on a sea voyage, giving him time to reflect.
When he finally returns to his dream home, he opens the door to join his dream woman: Greta Andersen. He reveals how he and Greta had met in Hamburg years ago. They had fallen in love and later, after Mike had heard that Gipsy's Acre was for sale, they devised a plan to get Ellie’s money. Greta first became Ellie's maid and gained her trust. Greta then arranged that Ellie would meet Michael on the day of the auction. Mike and Greta pretended not to know each other and even hate each other so no one would suspect them. They plan to get married and share Ellie's wealth now that she is dead.
They killed Ellie with cyanide, putting it inside her allergy capsules that she took prior to her horse ride. It was Mike who paid Mrs. Lee to frighten Ellie with the story of the curse. To eliminate Mrs. Lee as a witness, Michael and Greta pushed her into a quarry. Claudia Hardcastle was unintentionally poisoned after finding and taking one of Ellie's pills in the folly. It was her lighter that was left behind by accident.
Michael and Greta celebrate what they have done, but when Michael opens the letter from Mr. Lippincott, he is horrified to find an old newspaper clipping with a picture of himself with Greta in Hamburg. He worries that people will suspect the truth and becomes agitated. He hallucinates that he sees Ellie on the grounds before entering the house. Greta tries to reassure him, but, in a fit of rage, he strangles her.
Shortly afterwards, the police and the local doctor arrive, their suspicions aroused by Claudia Hardcastle's death. They find him sitting with Greta's corpse, slowly losing his sanity.
It is revealed that after Mike was arrested, he wanted to write down the entire story from his perspective; the entire novel is that account.
He recounts that as a child, he let his friend drown in a frozen pond to steal his watch. As a young adult, he let another friend bleed to death after he was stabbed during a mugging, just so Mike could steal the money on his person. He always hated his mother because she was the only person who could see through him and suspected the truth about his murderous tendencies, hence his anger when Ellie met his mother: he was worried his mother might reveal his true character to her.
Michael thinks Santonix might have known or suspected his true character as well. When Santonix told him he "should've gone the other way," he meant that Mike should not have murdered Ellie and instead learned to love her.
He wonders if he could have ever actually been happy with Ellie and why he threw his chance with her away. He wonders if he ever did love her. The novel ends.
