When Lady Isabella Wharton receives a summons from her godmother, the dowager Duchess of Ormonde, she knows the news won't be good. From her disastrous marriage, to her reckless widowhood, she and the duchess have never seen eye to eye. But this time the old woman has gone too far. Not only is she demanding that Isabella leave town at the height of the season, she wants her to convince the new Duke of Ormonde, who lives in obscurity as a gentleman farmer in the wilds of Yorkshire, to give up his rustication and come to London. Prepared to give the duchess a polite but firm no, Isabella is stunned when the older woman tells her that she knows what she, Georgina Mowbray and the duchess' own daughter-in-law, Perdita, did last summer and she's prepared to tell all if Isabella refuses to perform her task. Since she would do anything to protect their secret, Isabella swallows her bile and packs for Yorkshire. But not before warning Georgina and Perdita that their secret is out.