To Isabella de Sevigny, a penniless and aristocratic refugee from France's Reign of Terror, Nethergate is the beautiful old English country house that promised so much and gave so little. To her daughter, born of an affair whose fulfillment was denied by the cold mistress of Nethergate, the house is the setting for her dream of love. To both, it is a place of more than physical presence; it has a character all its own, seeming to reflect the emotions of the people in it and even to direct their lives.
Isabella, exiled into a brutal marriage and freed by an undetected act of violence, returns briefly to Nethergate but is again forced to leave. Taking her daughter with her, she calls for help from past connections among the French emigres whose struggle against poverty is set into sharp relief by the brilliant society of Regency London.
A connection with a wealthy nobleman seems to offer sure escape,, but the crack of a gun shatters that expectation too. How Isabella finds unexpected contentment in a world of half shadows, how the dream of her daughter quite literally comes true, how currents from the past carry both back to Nethergate-these are some of the elements on this many-faceted story written in the best Norah Lofts tradition of skill and excitement.
England