When millionaire businessman Ivan Digby asks jewellery designer Jo Radcliffe to create a necklace for his fiancee Miri, using the precious stones from the priceless `Fieldingley Necklace', Jo is intrigued. The rubies are famous because they were among the first to be sold abroad after Britain conquered Burma in the 1850s; after all these years, Betsy Fieldingley has had to sell them in order to pay off her debts. But Ivan Digby and his spoiled ex-showgirl fiancee prove to be demanding customers, and Jo soon realises she has bitten off more than she can chew. She works hard to befriend them, and earn their trust, but disaster strikes when the rubies are found to be fakes. Jo finds herself under attack from all sides: Ivan and Miri are furious with her, and Tim Fieldingley, Betsy's rather likeable grandson, also seems to blame her, unfairly, for the slight to the family name.