Village

Sam Ross returns to Cornwall after being demobbed from the army and is invited to stay with his sister who lives in Nortumberland. He drives there in his car but the journey is long and arduous and, in his tired state, he finds himself lost at a strange village called Numbwinton. He discovers that it is still living in Victorian times away from the rest of the world, without telephones, television, radio or anything modern or electronic. He finds himself to be a stranger, detested by the villagers, and is put into jail on a false charge during which time his car is vandalised so that he cannot leave. He knows there is a secret to the village and is determined to find it, especially as there are no old people to be seen, He escapes from jail and undertakes his own research to unravel the secret but eventually he is caught and is matched with a beautiful widow who looks to be about twenty-seven years of age. She has a son who goes to school and, in due course, she reveals that she is actually eighty-seven years old and that her young schoolboy son is of middle age. He then finds out that everyone in the village has to take the tablets produced there to maintain their youthfulness. Sam's sister becomes concerned that her brother has gone to the village and she sends a detective to bring him back to her. However, the man falls foul of the villagers. But worse is to come when a television crew arrives there and are all murdered. Sam continues to follow a trail which lead him to find a number of secrets which shock him until destiny turns its spite on the village with its unusual venom.