The time and place is Bath in the last years of the Regency. The social
rounds of Bath -- the dances, the teas, the mornings in the Pump Room.

The lady of quality is Miss Annis Wychwood, rich, beautiful, independent,
and at twenty-nine, considered long past marriageable age. She lives in
her own house in Bath with an elderly and garrulous cousin, foisted on her
by her very correct brother, Sir Geoffrey Wychwood, to keep tongues from
wagging.

When Miss Wychwood agrees to take Lucilla Carleton, an engaging seventeen-
year-old heiress, under her wing, the arrangement is condemned by almost
everyone -- her scandalized chaperon, Sir Geoffrey, and Lord Beckenham, her
most persistent suitor. The only exception is Lucilla's guardian, Mr.
Oliver Carleton, known to all to be the rudest man in London.