Lord Gillingham hasn’t been the best father, or even the best person. What started out as arranging advantageous matches to ensure his daughters’ futures and increase his fortune has led to avarice. The girls’ once affable and caring father has slowly but quite surely become the kind of man who would jeopardize his children’s happiness for the sake of his riches.

Penelope Gillingham knew it was her duty to marry. But she never could understand her father's insistence on a hasty match with the first eligible, titled gentleman he could foist upon her. When she meets a duke who shares her views on the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, marital bliss suddenly becomes an enjoyable prospect. But, alas, things are never as simple as they seem.

Virginia Gillingham has watched her older sisters marry for love. Of course, she wants the same…only she craves a little adventure first. With her friends, Selina and Madeline du Campion, the trio set off on a series of dares, each one more exciting than the last.

Growing up, Andrew Gillingham paid little attention to Amanda Abbott. Thinking of her only as the neighbor’s bothersome younger daughter, his interactions with her mostly involved rebuking her girlish adoration. Years later, when they are reintroduced to polite society, Andrew is taken aback. Amanda, fresh out of finishing school, is no longer the shy, lanky slip of a girl he remembered. What’s more, she seems entirely unaware of how lovely she has become–or that Laurence du Campion has set his sights upon her.

Josephina flaunts society's rules to drive carriages in the park and join the men in a spirited hunt. She refuses to marry and wears her old maid label with gusto. The Earl of Sunningdale reluctantly fought a duel to defend his sister's honour and had to leave the country for some years. When his father died, he inherited the title and returned home.