Mary Smyth, the daughter of a Catholic rebel, tumbles into Alec Gracey's life from atop a ridge-underfed, tattered, shoeless-and captures his cynical heart. She lives in an overcrowded hut; he resides in the manor down the hill. She works as a laundress; he is seeking office in England's Anglican parliament, the protege of the powerful Earl of Roden. Disguising his name, he will slip into her world and together they will hurtle toward a deadly collision with history. Ireland will never be the same. And neither will they."