After her father's death, Theodora Buckleigh's new adopted family wants to give her a London season. But though she is a pretty girl, Theodora has limped from birth, and dreads exposure to the social round. She takes evasive action, accepting an invitation from Dorothy Wordsworth to stay with her and her poet brother William in Dorset. Here she will find love, danger and intrigue. Might Coleridge and the others be engaged in treason? Can Theodora's chaperone, Alex Kydd, rescue her from this dangerous company; and even if he does, could there ever be any more between them than friendship?