The sudden death of Dr. Shefford leaves Ann and his other children facing financial ruin. Just as the family are to be split up and everything sold, a mysterious patient of the late Dr. Shefford proposes to Ann, and in order to keep the family together, she accepts.

As Sir John Melton, a handsome, broody young politician takes the family to his country estate, Gulliver, Ann faces a life in the knowledge she does not love her new husband, nor fit into his world. How she keeps her treasured family together, how she saves them and those around her from heartache and ruin, and how she opens her eyes and her heart to what is before her, is all revealed in this beautifully told tale of grief, revelation, and love.