A British aristocrat murders his children's nanny, mistaking her in the dark for his wife, and disappears, never to be seen again. For forty years the British press will look for him. There will be 'sightings', there will be leads, but the police will eventually close the case when he is officially declared dead. For many, the whole affair was the best and most addictive of mysteries, based on a tragedy, and before that on a turbulent marriage between a breathtakingly handsome, elegant and noble gambler and an inept, and possibly insane, social climber. But for his wife, it was the most romantic and passionate of love affairs, turned sour - a love affair that would stretch beyond death itself.