Orphaned twins Lorelli and Ovid live all alone with their servants in great and gloomy Thornthwaite Manor. They are only permitted to wear black, are served only bland, unseasoned food, and may listen to nothing but sad and sombre music. Since they don't go to school, and television is not allowed, they spend their days playing chess, reading books, trying to kill each other, and riding horses. But their charmed lives are interrupted when a lawyer and his annoyingly cheerful son Adam come to stay. With their arrival, dark secrets begin to surface - secrets about the twins' past, their vast inheritance, and their mysteriously deceased parents - secrets that will change their lives forever.