Wealthy young widow Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, spent the obligatory year in mourning for her philandering husband. With her young daughter in tow, Frances moves from the English countryside and her money-grubbing in-laws to Victorian London, and welcomes her sister, Lily, arriving from New York for her first London social season. When mysterious burglaries start plaguing London's elite, an anonymous tip to the police implicates...

When her father goes away, eleven-year-old California "Callie" Poppy winds up with her eccentric Great-Aunt Monica and their ancestor - the once-famous etiquette expert Eleanor Fontaine, now a hypersensitive ghost.

Arriving in London for his arranged marriage, uncivilized American rake Rafe Bowman receives lessons in London etiquette and gentlemanly behavior from four former Wallflowers during the holiday season, an effort that is complicated by the bride's unexpected ways.

As part of a bargain with her grandmother, Poppy Garrison accepts an unusual proposition to participate in the New York social season. Forced to travel to America to help his cousin find an heiress to wed, bachelor Reginald Blackburn is asked to give Poppy etiquette lessons, and he swiftly discovers he may be in for much more than he bargained for.