In the summer of 1889 15 year old Sam Masters rescues 8-year-old Lady Olivia Susannah Charlton from a Cornish cove. He's only interested in a smuggling mystery, she only cares for her precious doll. Sadness awaits each of them back home for Sam's father dies in mysterious circumstances and Olivia's father disappears. Sixteen years later, Sam has become a senior customs officer. Olivia's seemingly conventional life as a writer of children's fiction masks a secret passion for speed and risk-taking, fed by the devil-may-care Harold Jenkins, whose family now lives in Olivia's ancestral home. Then Olivia discovers her father may still be alive. In the summer of 1905 she goes incognito to France to find him and demand her birthright. But she must also ward off the unwelcome attentions of philandering Jack Brandon and his attempts at revenge when she rejects him. A dangerous adventure awaits as do further encounters with Sam Masters whose life is bound up with hers in more ways than they know.