Growing up amid the strict mores and stultifying traditions of Edwardian England's Redford Hall, Annabella Lagrange is forced to hide her father's terrible secret and turns to her beloved cousin, Stephen.

"One month after the end of World War II, amid the jubilation in the streets of France, there are throngs of people stunned by the recovery work ahead. Every bridge, road, and rail line, every church and school and hospital, has been destroyed. Disparate factions-from Communists, to Resistance fighters, to federalists, to those who supported appeasement of the Nazis-must somehow unite and rebuild their devastated country. Asher lost his family during...