Cue the Battered Wife

A bird watcher's photograph reveals a human hand in an eagle's nest.


Vivien Reid, celebrated explorer and author, darling of the media, is devastated when her publisher drops her from the list. An admirer and one-time editor, Rupert Lasco, seizes his opportunity and pushes her towards writing crime novels, which she must set in the mountain country with which she is so familiar.


The proposal starts to bear fruit and Lasco moves into Vivien's remote Highland lodge where propinquity results in progress from successful team work to affection and marriage, Lasco also winning over the fiercely loyal secretary and handyman who have found their own niches working with Vivien, whom they adore.


On the other hand the macho, hard-drinking neighbour, Alastair Semple, regards Lasco with overt hostility. A mediocre climber, he has been taken out by Vivien occasionally and finds it humiliating that she should now reject him, citing the demands of the new book.


Semple is contemptuous of both book and new husband and takes out his frustration on his wife, Aileen. His fortunes are low: once the local laird he is reduced to running a pony-trekking business, aided by his wife's dour step-father while her mother attends to the domestic side of two households. Aileen is a loose cannon, neurotic and careless, existing on drink and drugs.


Semple's frustration and rage escalate, culminating one afternoon in sadistic jibes aimed at Aileen before his violent exit at a time when bad weather is moving in. Next morning the glen awakes to deep snow over and the dawning awareness that the laird is missing.