The old Tarleton music hall in London's Bankside is the subject of a mysterious restaint order that has kept the theatre closed for over ninety years. When Robert Fallon is asked to survey the Tarleton, he finds clues indicating that its long twilight sleep may conceal a sinister secret. Joining forces with Hilary, a researcher into Edwardian theatre, he discovers the legend of the Tarleton's 'ghost' - a figure whose face is always hidden and who was first seen in the time of the charismatic performer Toby Chance, once the darling of Edwardian audiences until he vanished suddenly and inexplicably in the early 1900s.

After almost a century, the Tarleton's dark silence is about to end. But there are people who find its re-opening a threatening prospect and, as Robert and Hilary delve into the remarkable and macabre history of one of London's oldest music halls, they both become menaced by the secrets of the past.