San Francisco, Spring of 1900: Charmian Kittredge is an ambitious woman of twenty-nine, single, and unafraid to challenge the conventions of polite society. Her life will be forever changed when she accompanies her literary editor aunt to a luncheon to meet a young writer, Jack London, fresh from the Klondike and ready for fame. They experience instant chemistry.

Jack is charmed to discover that Charmian’s intellect is as compelling as her beauty, and the attraction builds with each encounter, culminating in an invitation to a picnic date—one that Jack will break with the barest of notes announcing his marriage to another.

Yet social circles conspire to bring them back together, and the pair discover that time has done nothing to quell the attraction they feel. Charmian chooses to be in Jack’s life no matter the consequences—becoming his friend, confidante, editor, lover—and eventually The Second Mrs. London.