Robin and Felicia receive a letter from Fanny Rose, the beauty they met on the ship on which they sailed to England. Fanny wrote an impassioned plea for aid, as she has found a man who she wishes to marry, but there has been trouble. Crispin Parsons, the family tutor, still carries a torch for Fanny, and wishes to help her, even though she has found another man. As Robin and Felicia are about to leave England to take Pernel and the other children to Italy for the winter, they decide to break their journey in Kent, near Canterbury, to look into Fanny's unspecified troubles. What they find is a very unpleasant family indeed, and some nasty things going on. A lot of secrets are revealed, regarding Fanny as well as her betrothed's family.