Midnight, New York Harbor, 1949. Cantor Gold, dapper dyke-about-town, smuggler of fine art, waits in her boat under the Brooklyn Bridge for racketeer Gregory Ortine. In the shadow of the bridge, he'll toss Cantor a satchel of cash, and she'll toss him a pouch containing a priceless jewel. But the plan, and the jewel, sink when a woman in a red sequined dress drops from the bridge and slams onto Cantor's boat. She is Opal Shaw, Society Page darling...

In the years leading up to the England's war with Napoleon, Cole Buckley lived a charmed life. Raised as a brother to the Earl of Belcastle's children, he lived with his family in the manor house. At seventeen, desires for the opposite sex get Cole and his brother in trouble. The Earl sets both their futures in motion, as Phillip becomes a midshipman and Cole, a junior Army officer. But Cole's father wants him to know what it is like to work, to understand...