Roland Michell is an American scholar in London to study the great Randolph Henry Ash. Ash is best known for the rapturous poems he dedicated to his wife. Maud Bailey is a brilliant student researching the life and work of the lesser-known Victorian poet Christabel LaMotte. As the history books tell it, both poets, La Motte and Ash, briefly met at a dinner, and they never encountered each other again. However, Maud and Roland discover a cache of love letters that appear to link the two poets as secret lovers. They follow the trail of clues across England as the growing mystery leads them from dusty bookshelves to exotic hideaways, and their adventure begins to mirror the romantic journey of Ash and LaMotte.