Victorian romantic saga, follows the story of Sophia, wealthy heiress, andthe two men embroiled in a deadly rivalry for her affections. Stonor is aman of business, cold and practical, but determined to cement theirrelationship in a marriage that will guarantee the survival of hisinheritance, Queen's Stonor, one of the great houses of England, elegant butdecaying. Wolfe is his illegitimate brother, charming but always involved insome disreputable scheme, furious that he will not inherit Queen's Stonorhimself. The two young men have always loathed each other and Sophia'sentrance into their world provides them with an excuse for their silentenmity to break into open hostility. Sophia herself falls head over heels inlove with Wolfe, but she knows the relationship is doomed; her father wishesher to marry Stonor and she will not hurt him by refusing.