When Colonel Henry Fitzwilliam arrives at Rosings Park and reconnects with his cousin Anne's lady companion, Ophelia Hampton, he can hardly believe she is the same person as the unprepossessing eight-year-old he teased as a teenager. Now, despite himself, he is enchanted by the accomplished but penniless orphan. To his dismay, Sir Thomas Wainwright, a landholder in the district, has also shown a marked interest in the young woman. During a ball at Lady Catherine de Bourgh's house in Kent Ophelia disappears, and Fitzwilliam and his cousin Darcy must undertake a desperate race across country and against time through the depths of winter. But will they be able to keep her from being married over the anvil at Gretna Green?.