Cecil Prendergast has a problem. He has been selected by Muriel Harcourt and her maid as the third dimension in their relationship. The "problem" is that Muriel likes to beat Cecil's backside with a bamboo cane. Before long, a new master emerges—and Cecil finally asserts his dominance. Through disciplinary scenes, he wages a war of retribution via stinging pleasure and mutual consent—and punishes Muriel, her maid, and Muriel's two nieces in turn. Here is a shocking, explicit, classic tale of sadomasochism at the heart of English high society. Set in London and the Dorset coast, in an era of English history where corporal punishment was freely dispensed, the characters represent the core principles of disobedience, chastisement, and compliance.