Victorian London was notorious for its pickpockets. But in the country houses of the elite, gentleman burglars, art thieves and con men preyed on the rich and titled. Wealthy victims would never go to the police. What they needed was a society insider, a person of discretion and finely tuned powers of observation, adept at navigating intrigue. That person was Lady Mary Montagu Douglas Scott, the youngest child of Queen Victoria’s close friends the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch. While at a house party, Lady Mary meets Colonel Walter Trefusis, a war veteran who has a desk job in Whitehall providing a front for his role in the British Intelligence Service. The two form an unlikely alliance to solve a series of audacious crimes --- and indulge in a highly charged on-off romance.

Lady Margaret Montagu Scott, the second daughter of the Scottish Duke of Buccleuch, a close friend of the Queen, is expected to make an advantageous marriage. But Margaret is an impulsive and outspoken girl in a repressive society where women are caged in corsets and required to conform. When Lady Margaret’s parents arrange a society marriage for her, she tries to reconcile herself to the match. But shortly before her betrothal is announced, Margaret flees, leaving her parents to explain her sudden absence to an opulent ballroom stuffed with 200 distinguished guests. Banished from polite society, Margaret throws herself into charitable work and finds strength in a circle of female friends like herself --- women intent on breaking the mold, including Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Louise.