Even Mary's recent success in publishing cannot take away the sting of a regal visitor or the distress of a difficult decision. But she has little time to fret about her future before a summons arrives from Pemberley, where Mary's closest friend, Georgiana Darcy, is ill. While at Pemberley, Mary overhears shocking news about the man Georgiana loves, and an outraged, fully-recovered Miss Darcy is determined to prove him innocent. She enlists Mary's aid, and their inquiries put them in peril, giving Mr. Darcy good reason to tell his wife that their sisters might need a firmer hand in the future. When the Darcy party returns to Hertfordshire, Mary receives a second summons-this time from Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who is determined to dictate the course of Mary's next novel, to see that Mary becomes a governess, and to have Georgiana married to a wealthy, elderly widower with three children. While at Rosings, Mary is once again thrown into the company of a gentleman who causes her to rethink her determination to remain a spinster.