It is 1815. Elizabeth Darcy returns to Hertfordshire to see her family at Christmas, but a silly quarrel between Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley threatens everybody's pleasure. The war is over, but Meryton is anything but peaceful. The neighborhood ladies are each determined her cook will win first prize in the Beau Bon-Bon charity baking competition, and Mrs. Bennet is determined to get the new tenant of Netherfield Park for Kitty - but Commodore Harrington might have other plans.

When Fitzwilliam Darcy is betrayed by love at the age of 23, he vows that never again will he allow a woman to own his heart. Never again will he be made a fool. Never again will he trust. His heart and pride will be spared from another crippling blow, no matter what.

Elizabeth Bennet travels to Kent to escape her mother’s histrionics, hopeful to find respite in visiting her oldest friend, Charlotte Collins. Instead of the reprieve she desired, she finds herself trapped and miserable. Elizabeth’s only relief is derived from her morning rambles, where she finds great solace in the strangest of places—walking with Mr. Darcy. His steadiness, kindness, and dependability greatly oppose her previous perceptions of the man, and yet she cannot help but continue to compare his character in Kent with the man she had supposed him to be in Hertfordshire.

The morning after the Netherfield ball, Elizabeth Bennet refuses an offer of marriage, setting off a row in the Bennet household that ends tragically. Faced with homelessness and untenable poverty, Elizabeth receives a different sort of offer - from quite an unexpected quarter - and finds herself considering the once-inconceivable prospect of going into trade.

The arrival in Meryton of a young widow and her children leads to new friendships for Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in the spring of 1815, but they receive few answers to their questions about her previous life.