I really enjoyed the early parts of this book. There are dual narratives; Hetty, in the present, planning to renovate an historic ruin of a house in Scotland's Outer Hebrides and Theo and Beatrice, the owners and residents of the estate in the late 18oo and early 1900s. There are many intriguing characters and the setting is fabulous. I found I had a far greater understanding of Beatrice's character than of Hetty's and Hetty remained aloof and, somewhat, misunderstood to the very end. The latter portion of the book featured a rapid-fire untangling of many of the threads of the novel and I found that this need for quick resolution was at odds with the steady, rhythmic pace, the slowly building tensions of the earlier parts of the novel. Worth a read despite its few flaws.