Sixteen year old Elizabeth Sharpe, disobedient one too many times, is banished to Honiton to live with her aunt and cousins in the hope she will learn the error of her ways. Four others travel on the coach, all of whom for better and worse, are to play a part in her life. When the typhus comes to London, Elizabeth comes to realize life is not infinite. Where she expected to find only unhappiness and rebellion, instead she comes to love the town, and one person in particular.