In one of the best stories in the series, Barnabas slips through "the foggy mists of time" and emerges in "that dreaded somewhere which is nowhere...the place which has no past and no future...the place of eternal present"-- Limbo. In this strange place out of time, Barnabas meets Hope Forsythe, a dark-haired beauty who is being forced into marriage by the corrupt Tibourne. It is love at first sight for Hope and Barnabas, and they pledge themselves to each other immediately.