Story Overview

Colonel and Mrs Kingsward have been travelling in Germany with their three eldest children, for the health of Mrs Kingsward. Just after the Colonel returns to London, their daughter Bee becomes engaged to Aubrey Leigh, a young man of independent means.

But a vindictive "lady" writes to Colonel Kingsward, enclosing a note on which she has forged a date, claiming Aubrey is under a moral obligation to marry her. Thus Colonel Kingsward forbids Bee's engagement.

But when Bee and her mother hear Aubrey's story, it is very different from what the woman, Miss Lance, has put forward. Miss Lance had been an inseparable friend of Aubrey's wife — so much so that even marriage did not prevent Miss Lance from continuing her intense friendship with his wife.

And after his wife's death, Miss Lance was determined to compromise Aubrey. The Kingsward family is destined to be entangled again with this adventuress, who has an uncanny ability to manipulate people, especially men.