1795, and a young woman travels from Cambridge to the Suffolk coast. Her name is Mary Finch, and she has been invited to meet her wealthy uncle - and so end a family estrangement that has held fast for more than twenty years. Smart, courageous and blessed with good looks if not good fortune, Mary is excited by the prospect of adventure, and the chance to escape a miserable future teaching at Mrs Bunbury's school for young ladies. But a whispered warning from a man dying on the road, who carries a strangely familiar watch bearing her uncle's initials, exposes her to a ruthless conspiracy that threatens not only her family's reputation, but her very life...