Henry goes back to England from St. Louis after he unexpectedly inherits the family estate on the death of his oldet brother. He enters into a maelstrom of love and resentment and friendship with his childhood friend, now a Roman catholic priest. And that's just the beginning of a spiritual anti-spiritual story of him, his brother's flat, his friend's fascination with a young man, his mother, her friend, a tapestry, a crime....