A pair of star-crossed lovers shares a strange, portentous dream. In the early years of the 19th century, young Caroline Markham grows up in Oxfordshire under the maternal wing of her wealthy godmother--cherished and indulged, admired, protected--and haunted. Secretly oppressed by the grim legacy of her father's failed ambitions, she bears in silence the burden of the deathbed promise extracted by her mother, and suffers a strange, recurring dream of an abandoned garden, a mysterious search, and a beckoning voice that leads to an ancient desert tomb. It is a dream that devolves into nightmare--a nightmare unwittingly shared by Edward Reynolds, the man who steals Caroline's heart. Reckless Edward is love-struck at first sight; he pursues Caroline, courts her and begs her to be his wife. But he is not at all the sort of person her parents would have approved. Heartbroken, yet desperate to fulfill her secret vow, Caroline refuses Edward and marries a suitor she does not love--setting off a chain of events that threatens to destroy them both.