England at the end of the eighteenth century...Lucasta Symonds did not enjoy her one, short London season and she is happy to remain at home while her beautiful younger sister Camilla sets out to make an advantageous marriage. Viscount Kennington takes one look at the beautiful Camilla and is immediately smitten. He follows her to London, determined to make her his wife.

However, when events take a turn for the worse and he is accused of a cold-blooded murder, it is not Camilla who comes to his rescue but the less beautiful, much more practical Lucasta...Melinda Hammond lives in a farmhouse on the edge of the Pennines.