How can an eligible young lady in the 1818 season be expected to find a suitable husband? This was the riddle that wealthy Lady Emma Shaftesbury was wrestling with as she looked over the crop of young dandies who had attended this season's balls. She felt strongly that it was important she see the world before she married, and her mother agreed, deciding to take her on The Grand Tour, first to France, where she sees the beauty of the fashion world and, with luck, her future wedding dress, and then to Italy where she would experience great art and, possibly, true love.In Italy, she meets Federico, an exotic Venetian nobleman, and falls head over heels for him. When her mother discovers her scandalous dalliance, she is horrified and forces a move, but Emma outwits her. She leaves a forwarding address to Federico, who writes to her and proposes marriage.When she returns to England, he follows her and causes a stir at a ball by publicly declaring his love for her. However, custom dictates that he return to Italy to get his parents' permission. He leaves, but is never heard from again.

Emma, humiliated, decides to re-enter the fray in London, but she no longer has the stomach for it. On her way back home by post coach, she meets another Italian gentleman, this one bound for France. When she tells him she will only marry a man who can buy her the dress she saw in a shop on the Champs lyse, he accepts her challenge. Will he rise to the occasion or turn out to be a cad? He is good friends with a well-known cad who is courting Emma's younger sister, so all signs point to disappointment. But nobody had counted on Emma's perseverance, strength of character, and ability to love. In the dazzling season in Regency England, Emma is one young lady you will never forget!.