Against the backcloth of the great English country house of Longwarden - the tender passionate story of four women unfolds. Jane Graham, American heiress, and new wife of her cousin Lord North, the ninth Earl of Carlyon... For her a love match, for him a marriage of convenience. Lady Penelope, the Widowed eighth Countess, who falls in love for the very first time with her butler, Mr. Ashford. Allegra Lomax, the unconventional North's sister, off to smart-set New York with a bestselling biography to promote, is intrigued by artist Andro Risconti. Pen's niece Sarah, only nineteen, and waiting for Nick, the man she loves to return home from a long absence in the Spanish Foreign Legion. From New England to Park Lane, from Manhattan to Barbados and home to Longwarden, four women live out 12 crucial months in a sweeping saga filled with love interwoven with violence and grief.