Emily Pride, Alleyn's cantankerous old French teacher, is the landlord of Portascarrick, an idyllic Scottish island with Pixie Falls, a small waterfall, which, according to local Celtic tradition, holds healing powers and can render miraculous cures. Some of the locals have vested financial interests in commercializing it and turning it into a mystical health spa. Miss Pride is dead set against the development and warns local merchant Elspeth Cost and others involved in the project that it must stop or their leases will be terminated. When she starts to receive death threats for her opposition,she asks her old pupil for help... and a gun.
—duke1029@aol.com