Obedient and naive Julianna Fletcher does a daughter's duty and travels from India to Gull Arc, Land's End, Cornwall, married by proxy to a dangerous imposter whose plan it is to use her as his means to a wealthy end. At Gull Arc, surrounded by his mother and his sister, she discovers many things and many people are not what they seem; love is not the 'ever-fixed mark' the poet wrote about; and her dreams are not to be had at any price. Julianna must find the strength to save herself as well as absolution for loving the wrong man before she can love again. Can the memory of one month's happiness give her the will to fight back against a man who will do anything to take his brother's place?"