[2] Set in the Yorkshire Dales, it is a simple story subtly told, steeped in the past and with a strong sense of place.

When Adam Forrest comes to re-paint the outside of the Unicorn Inn in Vendale he is determined to make sense of an old story told in the Dyson and Owland families.

Long ago, it is said, Dyson the innkeeper desired to marry Gertrude Owland, the daughter of a knight, who lived on the other side of the ridge in Thoradale.

She catches one of the "hounds", which turns out to be a fox, and unknowingly picks up some silver treasure and a horned skull at the bottom of a mineshaft.

These include an unusual treasure hunt, a problem to be resolved, the lack of "heroes" or "villains", and the slow revelation of character through dialogue.