Nathaniel Perry, once an officer living on his pay, is now becoming accustomed to being addressed as Lord Palfrey. His two grandfathers died in the same year, having separately bequeathed title and fortune, allowing Nathanial to show his face in London, and take a cousin as wife.

He has a large estate, as is necessary to maintain the status of a lord, but soon discovers that his paternal grandfather had run it into the ground, screwing out every penny, putting nothing back.

If Nathaniel is to make himself significant in the peerage, and create an inheritance for a son to use to become powerful in the country, then he must make something of his land. That, he discovers, is far more easily said than done.