When Kate (Helena Bonham Carter) falls in love with a common journalist (Linus Roache), she faces an impossible choice: either marry the man she loves, or give him up to take her rightful place in society. The struggle between her head and her heart is a conflict between 19th century values and 20th century passions. Their highly charged love affair is forbidden and necessarily discreet until the arrival of a young American heiress (Alison Elliott) nursing her own tragic secret. She offers them a tempting solution that will lead all three into a world of dizzying possibility and unexpected consequence.