Beautiful Kitty Macnab is a heroine for now; battling the men who use her. The year is 1822 and the storm-tossed life of Kitty is heading for the rocks, burdened as she is by the birth of her child, who is also her sister. In her search for a new identity for them both, the spirited girl challenges a society that offers them nothing. During a wrecking storm on Holy Island, Kitty witnesses the cruelty of some of the smugglers, and tensions mount. At Sir Walter Scott's table in Edinburgh, she recognises qualities in the great and the good that resonate with her. However, many challenges still threaten her future, including the scheming smuggler-Magistrate Armstrong, who controls her. In the exciting build-up to King George 1V's visit to the capital, Kitty faces a dilemma of conscience inspired by the warnings of Olaf Magson. This is the young student who threads through the novel as a man unlike any she has ever met before. But can Kitty overcome the burdens of her past..?