Nineteen-year-old Evelyn Ballantyre has rarely strayed from her family's estate in the Scottish Borderlands, save for the occasional trip to Edinburgh, where her father, a respected magistrate, conducts his business -- and affairs of another kind. Evelyn has always done her duty as a daughter, hiding her boredom and resentment behind good manners -- so when an innocent friendship with a servant is misinterpreted by her father as an illicit union, Evelyn is appalled.