Raised among the Cambridge intellectual elite with a distant father and authoritarian mother, Eliza grows up feeling inadequate and alone. But her parents' friends offer support – notably the Rothschild family and Lord Bob Boothby.

In a bid to find love, she marries a charismatic young actor, but when he lands the star role in a Fellini film, his focus turns elsewhere. As feelings of rejection set in, Eliza looks inward for answers, her spiritual search begins and she escapes to the Yorkshire Dales and pours her energy into writing, photography and teaching meditation.

As shadows from the past recede, horizons expand, and Eliza perceives a series of betrayals among her parents' friends that make her question her own paternity. Determined to uncover the truth, she begins unravelling a tangled web of secrecy and scandal that not only touches upon her own family, but extends to the highest levels of government.