A passionate saga set in the first half of the nineteenth century in the glorious Lake District of Cumbria, England, in the midst of a mining and farming community, with its wild fells, enchanting woods, mountains and magnificent lakes; glorious stretches of country, calm and beautiful, but sometimes stormy and forbidden. And the High Society of Piccadilly, London - "the magic mile" as it was known, stretching from Hyde Park Corner all the way along to Piccadilly Circus, revealing a glittering age in all its splendid and scandalous variety. A story of love and unsettling passions, of the people and the land, relating to two very different young women and the men in their lives. The first, the alluring Madame Duprez - an exquisitely beautiful, wealthy young widow with the most extravagant tastes - a Courtesan who can seduce a man at twenty paces without even showing her flesh. The second, the lovely 17-year-old Jessica Greenward - a warm hearted girl that believes in love and magic and who assumes, with the optimism of youth, that every cloud has a silver lining. Yet, not quite an Angel, with a streak of wildness about her that is admired by more than just one man. Luke Sheridan who constantly plagues her mind, is already married to another, but when his young wife tragically dies in childbirth, Jessica starts a turbulent friendship that turns into a wild love that has to struggle for fulfillment through a time of deep sorrow.