The story of Isabel Stanhope, the daughter of a seventeenth-century English Catholic family, who becomes involved with the dangerous political and religious factions of the day. The novel is based in part on the true story of Mary Ward, one of the seventeenth century’s most adventurous, infuriating and inspirational women. Ward, who was the founder of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a lost feminist icon, a pioneer educationalist and an energetic advocate of the rights of women in a world where well-bred ladies were expected to remain silent and subservient.