When Celia Meade's uncle impulsively offers Celia and her family a chance at a better life by inviting them to live at his estate near Bath, he is surprised by his daughter Caroline's animosity against the Meades. Caroline's hatred of Celia began when Celia attended her aunt's funeral and Caroline noted the immediate attraction between Celia and Caroline's choice for a husband, Lord Robert Merrick. Running into each other again in the woods that adjoin Lord Merrick's property, the attraction between Lord Merrick and Celia Blossoms into love in the warm days of summer. Enraged, that Celia will now live near Lord Merrick Caroline forbids Celia any contact with him with the threat that she will evict her and her family from Rook's End, in spite of her father's avowal that she cannot do this.