Jean and Thomas decide to take a sailing holiday in an attempt to rekindle their fading marriage, perhaps unwisely they also take Thomas' brother and his girlfriend. Jean, a newspaper photographer, who is teetering on the edge of a breakdown, researchs the lurid and sensational axe murder of two women in 1873, and discovers a cache of papers that appear to give an account of the murders by an eyewitness. The plot weaves between the narrative of the eyewitness and Jean's private struggle with jealousies and suspicions as her marriage teeters.