The Earl of Rothingham was a rake, an unrepentant rake. All of eighteenth-century England declared him so after he refuses a request from the Prince of Wales requested to marry his mistress--Lady Elaine Wilmot-- to choose himself a bride and leaves the splendours of Carlton House for his country estate.

But the Earl was not a cruel man. And when, while riding in the country woods one day, this cynical autocrat came upon a lady in distress his heart was touched. The lady was lovely Syringa Melton-- young, innocent and ethereally beautiful. Hard times had fallen on her family and she was forced to give up her most cherished possessions. She had broken-hearted at the prospect of having to lose her white stallion, Mercury, to meet the debts of a dissolute father.

Out of kindness and pity, the Earl brought Syringa to London to start a new lift. But it was a grave mistake. Lady Elaine was waiting for Syringa--waiting to trap her in a bitter and treacherous web of jealousy, intrigue and near death. Syringa goes to the glittering salons of London to the horrors of Newgate Prison.