Adelina Cole has grown up knowing little of her parents' history before they eloped to New York in 1795. Now, twenty years later, orphaned and alone she determines to escape from the scandal and disgrace her father sunk to before his violent death, and stows away on a merchant ship back to England -- and her mother's home at Abbeyford Grange.

But Lord Royston is too bitter and withdrawn to admit his only grandchild to his sight. He has never forgiven Caroline for running away. And Francis Lynwood, while coming to Adelina's aid in settling her with distant cousins, cannot look at her face without seeing again the woman he once loved, and who broke his heart Meanwhile, Evan Smithson, illegitimate son of Caroline's maid, Sarah and Guy Trent, swears vengeance on all who have wronged him in the past. And that includes his half-brother, Wallis Trent, Lord Lynwood ... and even Adelina.