Behind their neat dacades of Victorian propriety, Anthony Trollope's characters are bursting with life. A flirtarious vicar, two squabbling sisters, an ingenue and her meddling aunt...these are the friends and relations who surround Louis and Emily Trevalyan in the first blissful year of their married life. But things take a darker turn when the roguish Colonel Osborne takes an interest in Emily, and, flattered by the resulting gossip, fans the flames of Louis's jealousy.