A newlywed with a deadly secret

Aurora Floyds the spoiled, only daughter of rich widower Archibald Floyd; the result of his scandalous marriage to a penurious actress. Aurora grows up a renowned beauty, known locally as fast for her unladylike habits hunting and riding horses she however is undaunted and confident. But after her return from a French finishing-school, Aurora returns oddly changed, gaunt, worried as if harbouring some terrible secret. Time passes, Auroras engaged to be married but her past threatens to ruin her chance of happiness.

Braddons follow up to the immensely successful Lady Audleys Secret is a once both a mystery and the moving coming-of-age story of a young woman carrying the burden of a past with bad decisions.