Imagine a time when love was not only discouraged, but also considered irrelevant. When women had no legal rights. When the only way for women to secure a bright future was by taking “the dark leap” into marriage. Sound far-fetched? Welcome to Boston on the eve of the Revolutionary War.

Grace Galloway always regretted never finding time to meet prospective suitors. She was too busy caring for her siblings. Until she meets a wealthy politician who makes her realize that romance is truly worth fighting for. But then someone plunders her financial assets, leaving her family bankrupt. And when the lone suspect turns up dead, the authorities target Grace for the crime. Now she is forced to prove her innocence while in pursuit of the true thief.

After her husband’s ship explodes, Lorelai Loudon saves her spouse from a lynch mob. The result: he abandons her, plunging Lorelai into a lifetime of debt she cannot repay. So she seduces someone who can help with that endeavor…the same man that Grace has fallen in love with.

Meanwhile, Lorelai pursues the criminal who destroyed her husband’s ship in an effort to regain her wealth. But she has no idea that the guilty individual is one of her closest allies.

Infatuated with a charming smuggler, but forced to marry a man she loathes, Hannah Halliwell uncovers evidence that either man could be the one who murdered her mother. Consumed with vengeance, she sets off a series of events that force all three women to rely on one another to rebuild their lives, search for true love, and identify the mastermind who triggered their misfortunes.