Mr. Pye is a missionary whose mission to spread God's love on the tiny English Channel island of Sark faces supernatural setbacks in this comic fantasy from the author of Gormenghast.

This ghost story, set at the turn of the century, centers on the plight of elderly dowager Marianna, who is tormented by the alleged specter of a young man roaming the corridors of her mansion. After spotting a face in an old photograph that seems to match the old woman's description of the "visitor", Marianna's sister decides to check things out and see if any of this is for real.

For many men edging on middle-age a mistress is a wistful pipe-dream. Gilbert has made fantasy into fact. But he becomes increasingly uncomfortable when his mistress makes him go against his code of ethics and forces him to burgle his wife's flat.