"Within weeks letters would be burned, pages torn. Promises would be broken and hearts betrayed. But for now the countryside languished, golden and fading; Cecily Chadwick is idling away the long, hot summer of 1911 when a mysterious countess moves into the large, deserted country house on the edge of her sleepy English village. Rumors abound about the countess's many husbands and lovers, her opulent wealth, and the tragedies that have marked her life. As Cecily gets to know her, she becomes fascinated by the remarkable woman-riveted by her tales of life on the Continent, and of the famous people she once knew. But the countess is clearly troubled by her memories, and by ruinous secrets that haunt her; Staying with the countess is a successful novelist and dear friend who has been summoned to write the countess's memoirs. For aspiring writer Cecily, the novelist's presence only adds to the intrigue of the house. But it is the countess's grandson, Jack, who draws Cecily further into the tangled web of the countesss past, and sweeps her into an uncertain future"--