This genealogical study is the result of six years' research. It reveals the fascinating pedigree of Mary Emma Sercombe - one that encompasses wealth acquired from medieval land-grabbing and from sugar plantations in Antigua; there are Quakers, medics and lawyers, incidences of lunacy, a haunted portrait and a death by pricking with a fern. We find cavaliers, mariners, scholars and clerics, inheritance of wealth and conversely disinheritance and poverty.
The book covers five bloodlines - Sercombe, Giffard, Otto-Baijer, Hester/King/Breed and Tree.