Cassandra Wyvern wants to be seduced. Her uncouth partner, Simeon Danton, has made it obvious that he's only with her until someone better comes along. Her friend suggests manifesting such a man, neither realizing that she was about to visit an apothecary shop hidden deep in ancient woodland on the England/Wales border or that its owner, the occultist Lucius d'Orléans—a man born in the 11th century—was about to enter her life.

Strangely drawn to Lucius, he tells her that they have been lovers twice before—first when she was a courtesan in 18th-century Paris; then again in 1890 when she was murdered by her jealous husband after he found out about their affair. Lucius has since spent more than a century waiting for her. Smitten with Lucius, when she visits him again, his derelict and overgrown shop appears new, as she has slipped through time and is now in the year 1891, a year after her previous incarnation was murdered. Her returning to Lucius has made him appear youthful again, and soon they resume their passionate and uninhibited sex life. But Simeon Danton has followed her and has vowed to win her back, even if it kills him—and strange things happen when a man dies an unnatural death a century before he was born.