Lady Guinevere Nowlton, known as Gwinnie, possesses a talent for the violin and a heart dedicated to helping women from the stews of London. Though the daughter of a duke, at eight-and-twenty, she considers herself on the shelf. She doesn’t think any man in society wants a large-boned woman for a wife who stands eye-to-eye, if not taller than her husband! She long ago tucked away dreams of love as she focused on concerts and her charity work at Mrs. Southerlands' House for Unfortunate Women.

Sir James Redstone has recently returned from abroad.

He is handsome, well-educated, heir to the Redstone title and family fortune, and a fellow traveler of Mikaela Forsythe.
He is also a member of the royal inner circle, close friend of the Prince of Wales, and well known to Mikaela’s aunt, Lady Antonia Montgomery.

In the past he and Mikaela traveled in the same group to Egypt and the Far East. They share the experience of that adventure that she has written about in her first novel.

Now, Redstone has returned with tales of other travels that Mikaela might have made if not for the recent change in her relationship with Brodie.