The newly widowed Emma, and her young son Charlie, arrive in nineteenth-century Ireland to take up a position as housekeeper for the local Doctor. Coerced into a clandestine affair with the Doctor Emma falls pregnant with his child. A fish out of water Charlie takes revenge on all who slight him before burning the old Midwife's son to death and fleeing to the local smuggling gang. Injured in a shootout, Charlie is brought home where he is poisoned in his sickbed by the old midwife and the doctor takes his corpse for his experiments. The reanimated corpse is hunted through the town whilst Emma's illegitimate child is aborted to protect the doctor's position in society. Emma is left standing in the ruins of her hopes, her son dead, her dreams of the future dashed - and her only remaining friend the ghost of a dead Lighthouse keeper.