When Tamsin Hardy returns home from her post as a lady's maid to attend her mother's sickbed, her childhood playmate Isobel Penrose offers her a post as her companion at Trevarrah House. Tamsin accepts, but she feels uneasy about Trevarrah House despite her growing attraction to Isobel's brother Adam. There is a bitter rivalry between Adam and his brother Nicholas, and Tamsin increasingly fears for her growing involvement with the Penrose family