In 1831, agitation for parliamentary reform brings England close to revolution. Violence outside the family is matched by violence within it: Sophie’s life is shattered by a terrible crime, Rosamund discovers that achieving her desires can be as painful as denial, and Heloise’s grief after James’s death allows disorder to spread through Morland Place.
Benedict is forced to flee and makes a new life among the railway pioneers, while Nicholas uses his freedom to indulge the darkest side of his character. Cholera adds an invisible danger to political and domestic unrest. The novel presents reform, disease and technological change as parts of one destabilising age, in which corruption within the family can be as lethal as the poison spreading through the country.
