The boring round of trivial politenesses endured by all women in Victorian society has not prepared Jessica Linton for the devastating charm of Prince Paul Varinsky. How can she have fallen in love with so totally unsuitable a man? Not only is he married - and Jessica is unwilling to risk a scandal - but he is Russian, England's foe in the war brewing in Turkey. Desperate to blot him from her mind, Jessica embarks for Scutari in the Crimea as one of Florence Nightingale's staff, dedicated to saving lives in the primitive conditions there. A chance encounter reunites her with the one man she is trying to forget - an enemy now both of her country and her patriotic heart....