At the age of nineteen, Lady Dorothea Rowlandson was practically on the shelf. Had she not suffered her father, the earl’s, untimely death weeks before last year’s season, she would surely by now be a married lady—the established wife of an illustrious peer. With such a regrettable delay, time was ever more of the essence if she wished to secure her own future and that of her sisters.

Selena Lockhart comes with neither dowry nor connections, and she knows better than to expect Society to give her a welcome—especially after her father gambled away his fortune, precipitating the family’s sudden fall from grace and Selena’s betrothed to break off their engagement. It therefore comes as no surprise that her new neighbor, Sir Lucius, treats her with disdain. Why should he look beyond appearances when her own promises so little?

Georgia Lennox has traded in her boyish ways for pink gowns and a coy smile to capture the eye of the Earl of Claremont. However, on the day she's convinced the earl will propose, Georgia is shipped off to the Leeward Islands to care for her ailing father. But when she arrives on Nevis, the last thing she expects is to learn that her abrupt departure was not at her father's bidding but that of the infuriating, yet captivating, island schoolmaster. And now her plans may well be shipwrecked.

Philip Townsend is too busy trying to render his estate profitable to worry about managing its rundown house or finding a woman suited to the role of his wife. His beautiful and competent neighbor Honoria would be the logical choice, were it not for the enmity between their fathers that makes such a thing impossible.

After an unsuccessful season in London, Miss Mary Mifford has returned to the village of Plumpton, determined to be the most upstanding spinster the Cotswolds have ever seen. Not even the arrival of the elusive Duke of Northcott can distract Mary from her plan; until the local rector is found bludgeoned to death and Mary is named as the prime suspect.