When her husband Theo dies, Marian Halcombe Camlet's heart breaks. Her plan is to wear black and dwindle away into her grave. But then her brother reveals her late husband's deathbed request: Theo wants his beloved wife to be happy. To marry again! Suddenly everyone in her family has a likely prospect to offer, and men are lining up. Fed up with the demands of Victorian society, Marian takes the decision into her own hands by returning to her first love—adventure. She sails halfway around the globe and finds old enemies and new loves. But when she returns to Britain, danger and treachery inexorably follow.