In her dreams Meridon knows she belongs elsewhere, well-fed and well-dressed, a favoured child. But reality is the grimy caravan and the string of ponies she has to train for her Da to sell, and later, life as a bareback rider in a travelling circus. When she is thrown into the world alone, Meridon happens upon the estate of Wideacre and claims it for her own, ignoring the rights and claims of tenants, its farmers and its quiet manager, Will Tyacke. Through a glittering social season, treachery, typhus and double-dealing, Meridon forges her own destiny and learns - as wealth, land and love all slip through her fingers - how to win through to what, all along, she has most truly wanted.