Starting in 1811 Bath, Somerset, where the fortunes of two young people become intertwined, when Kaspian Blake takes on a social experiment as a bet, to transform the life of a poorhouse young woman. His experiment turns out to be far more than he bargained for. Alas it all falls apart when Kaspian is forced to face previously unimagined consequences, causing both their lives to take different paths through the horror of the Napoleonic wars, though never far apart but never crossing. The question for Kaspian is whether he will ever find her again. For the experiment herself, was she ever really a suitable candidate?