At Clockmakers Cottage on the rugged Lancashire coastline, Amy Macfarlene, her younger brother and sister, Edmund and Vicky, together with Aunt Anne Shawcross, are busy making ready for sister Fanny's wedding -- and apprehensive lest their father's packet "Jenet Rae" doesn't sail home into Monks Quay harbour in time for Ramsay Macfarlene to walk his eldest daughter down the aisle at All Hallows.
Something more is causing Amy sleepless nights, though. While working as a maid at Whiteladies Grange, home of the wealthy and powerful Paslew family, Amy overheard a bitter argument between Fanny's betrothed, Theodore Buxton, and his younger brother, Nicholas. Amy had never quite trusted Theo, and now she's convinced he's engaged in a fraudulent money-making enterprise that, despite Nicholas' vehement objection, Theo is utterly determined to carry through.
Fanny refuses to listen to Amy's warning, and with Ramsay home safe from the sea and ashore, her wedding day is perfect in every way. Even wilful and fiery-tempered brother Rory is on his best behaviour! Suspicious when she discovers Rory with a purse of gold sovereigns in his possession, Amy follows her brother when he steals away from Clockmakers Cottage in the dead of night. She observes a clandestine meeting between her brother and Theodore Buxton, and witnesses a bulky package and a snub pistol changing hands. Amy is stricken, fearful not only about whatever lawless deeds Rory has become involved with, but also for Fanny's happiness and future -- and indeed, the well-being and safety of the whole Macfarlene family.
She confides in childhood sweetheart and loyal friend Dan Ainsworth. However, when Dan proposes, Amy is deeply troubled. For more and more, it is not Dan Ainsworth who is filling her thoughts and stirring her heart, but Gilbert Paslew of Whiteladies Grange . . .
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