Set in the second decade of the last century, this is a tragedy in four acts. The scene is the living-room of a farm on Lundy, a small granite island off the coast of Devon. Jordan Morris is the farmer, a man obsessed with hatred against all the world. His wife, Judith is starving for love, and instead gets only brutality. With the unhappy pair lives Penny Holt, an innocent little creature, who is like a ray of sunshine in the home. Jordan’s half-brother, Prosper, a young naval officer, arrives on the island and Judith falls in love with him.

She prays to the devil to keep Prosper on the island. The devil immediately arrives obligingly in the form of the Stranger, a shipwrecked sailor, who makes a bargain with Judith that he will serve her in every way…