Many conversations in Seacliff these days will eventually drift around to the new neighbour in the old Middleton house, two doors over from the Barbour family home. Rexford Frome, the son of Judge Middleton's one-time gardener, has returned to the scene of a bitter boyhood, and wonderful things are being done to the long neglected mansion. All of the neighbors - save one - are watching with fascinated interest...