While Cromwell and the Royalists fight for power, cities and even families are divided. As the battle for Litchfield swings between Roundheads and Royalists, Hope Levett, lady's-maid to Lady Hester Clinton, is torn between her dread of becoming the mistress of a powerful man and her newly aroused passion for a French nobleman. When she is kidnapped by the husband of her late mother she comes to believe that marriage to her love is impossible, but in a surprising development there is a glimmer of hope for a brighter future.