In 1874, women were not free to have ambitions beyond house and home, but Essie did. She reveled in her profession, digging in the dirt in the Caribbean for relics of a lost people, and her odd marriage to a beautiful man who indulged her desires. But all that changed with the arrival of a letter. Her husband dead, her career over, and her future darkened by a betrothal to her former brother-in-law, a monster twice her age, Lady Vanessa Everly's life has taken a tragic turn. Summoned back to London, she must drop everything dear to her and travel alone across the Atlantic toward a fate worse than death-confinement. Her only comfort is found the company of the ship's captain. A mysterious and intriguing man, Clark becomes a dream she is too afraid to have. Can every fate be changed?