Night Music

Set in the Norfolk countryside, the novel opens with an unnamed narrator reflecting on the Spanish House, a grand but decayed manor surrounded by woods and a lake, observing that a house can become an obsession capable of driving people to shameful behavior.

Laura McCarthy tends daily to Samuel Pottisworth, the elderly, bedridden last owner of the Spanish House, enduring his crude behavior because her husband, Matt McCarthy, a local builder, is convinced the old man will leave them the property. Matt's ambition is rooted in a family grievance: Years earlier, the Pottisworths falsely accused his father of theft and expelled the McCarthys from their estate cottage. When Pottisworth dies, the solicitor reveals he left no will, and the house passes by law to his only surviving relative, a stranger.

That stranger is Isabel Delancey, a lead violinist with the City Symphonia in London, grieving her husband Laurent's death in a car crash nine months earlier. Her son Thierry has not spoken since the accident, and her accountant reveals that Laurent left the family deeply in debt. Isabel refuses to sell her Guarneri violin, an instrument of enormous financial and personal value, and instead moves her family to the inherited house. Her 15-year-old daughter Kitty bitterly opposes the move.

The family arrives to find the house in appalling condition: no hot water, no heating, broken windows, and a kitchen untouched since the 1930s. Kitty visits the village shop, where the proprietors, Asad Suleyman and Henry Ross (known locally as "the Cousins"), welcome her with free provisions. Matt watches the newcomers from across the lane, furious.

Matt presents himself as a helpful neighbor, offering Isabel a detailed list of costly repairs. Overwhelmed, she accepts his offer to do the work. He brings in his son Anthony and Byron Firth, Pottisworth's former land manager, a quiet, imposing man with a troubled past. Working from plans drawn for the McCarthys' own dream renovation, Matt inflates costs and invents unnecessary work to drain Isabel's finances and force her to sell. Asad and Henry suspect the scheme but lack proof.

Byron forms a bond with the silent Thierry, teaching him about nature and animals. When Byron loses his housing, he secretly begins living in the boiler room beneath the Spanish House with his dogs. Thierry discovers him but keeps the secret. Meanwhile, Isabel's savings evaporate under Matt's inflated invoices. When Kitty discovers her mother could have sold the Guarneri to keep them in London, she accuses Isabel of selfishness. Stricken, Isabel sells the violin and offers to move the family back to London, but Thierry speaks for the first time, saying "No." Kitty also wants to stay.

Nicholas Trent, a once-successful London property developer now working as a low-level estate agent after financial ruin and divorce, stumbles upon the Spanish House and envisions a housing development. He begins seeking investors.

One stormy night, the power fails. Matt lets himself into the house, and he and Isabel, drunk and lonely, have sex. Afterward, he offers to waive her next payment. Isabel, interpreting this as a transactional proposition, is horrified and orders him out. Matt becomes infatuated, while Isabel is consumed with shame. In the boiler room, Byron hears everything.

Laura discovers a florist's receipt confirming Matt is having another affair. She encounters Nicholas by the lake, and their friendship develops into a love affair. She is devastated when she overhears Matt leaving a drunken voicemail declaring his love for Isabel.

Byron anonymously provides the Delanceys with eggs, firewood, and rabbits, teaches Isabel to forage and garden, and gives Thierry a puppy. He coaxes out Thierry's secret: Before the crash, Thierry saw Laurent with another woman and told his father he wished he were dead. The guilt has silenced him. Byron brings Isabel two letters from Laurent's mistress that Thierry had intercepted. Though Isabel initially lashes out, she comforts Thierry and releases him from his burden. Thierry begins speaking again.

Tensions explode when Asad publicly accuses Matt of overcharging Isabel at a village barbecue. Matt shoves Asad, who collapses with a severe asthma attack. Matt then reveals Byron's criminal record: Byron served 18 months for grievous bodily harm after attacking a man who had beaten his sister and assaulted his young niece. The injury was accidental, but the conviction destroyed his teaching career. Byron quits. Matt grows erratic, smashing a hole in the master bedroom wall with a sledgehammer after finding Byron's belongings. Isabel, learning Byron has been living in the boiler room, invites him to stay upstairs. Nicholas secures financial backing for his development. Laura packs to leave Matt, but Anthony refuses to go.

On Kitty's 16th birthday, the Cousins organize a party on the lawn. Matt, increasingly unhinged, breaks through the hole in the bedroom wall and into the bathroom while Kitty is about to bathe, frightening her. Byron runs inside, believing Thierry is in the house, and confronts Matt. Before the confrontation turns physical, the overflowing bath, combined with floor joists weakened by Matt's work, causes the central section of the house to collapse.

Everyone outside is safe; Thierry is in the woods. Byron is trapped but located when his dogs track his scent. He survives with serious injuries. Matt stumbles out dazed and broken. Laura, arriving with Nicholas, silently takes Matt's arm and leads him away, choosing her husband over Nicholas. She gives Byron a document found in Pottisworth's bureau: a will leaving the house and land to Byron, made as a deliberate act of spite against the McCarthys. Pottisworth had given Laura both copies as a test of her character.

Nicholas offers to buy the land. Isabel negotiates a price well above his opening offer, showing new shrewdness. In the hospital, Byron tells Isabel he cannot be with her, citing the gulf between their lives. Heartbroken, she moves with the children into a flat above the Cousins' shop. Byron throws the will into the lake, choosing not to assert his claim so that Isabel can benefit from the sale.

Days later, both return separately to the ruins. Isabel challenges Byron to take a chance on happiness, insisting a house is just a house. Byron overcomes his fear and kisses her.

In an epilogue, Kitty, revealed as the narrator, reports that the family now lives in one of the houses Nicholas built by the lake. Matt had a breakdown and moved away with Laura. Byron manages a nearby estate and stays with the Delanceys on weekends. Isabel plays with the orchestra twice a week. Kitty reflects that the Spanish House was never truly theirs, but they have found genuine contentment in an ordinary new home.