When she loses her high-profile job, Stacey leans on her career-minded friends and inadvertently exposes a betrayal that tests the limits of their bonds.

Rose Woodrowe is getting married to Tyler Masson - a wonderful, sensitive man who is head-over-heels in love with her. The only problem? This isn't the first time for either of them, and their five grown-up children have strong opinions on the matter... Who to listen to? Who to please? Rose and Tyler are determined to get it right this time, but in trying to make everyone happy, can they ever be happy themselves?

After her youngest son, and last one to marry, brings home his wife, Rachel feels her role of family matriarch slipping away and must deal with the loss that comes with it, while maintaining the relationships she holds dear.

Set in the years before and after Waterloo, the novel tells the parallel stories of two schoolfriends - the quiet, long-suffering Amelia and her brilliant, scheming friend, Becky Sharp. The novel portrays all the corruption and decadence of 19th-century England.