Would the actions of someone born two hundred years ago affect the lives of those today? Writer Ellie Fuller was about to find out as she sifted through the journals, letters and keepsakes of Liza Marchant, who had been a close friend and business associate of the Fuller family; and as she wrote about her, Ellie began to sense all the magic of that bygone age.

Was Liza the scarlet woman that she had been labelled or was she someone who had many twists and turns in her life, one who subsequently became an inspiration to those around her and continued to do so from beyond the grave?

Ellie begins to see her, feel her and even smell her, and she becomes quite unnerved by the experience, but when her brother, Eddy, has the same dreams they both know that they must lay Liza to rest by accurately piecing together her life story and following the routes that she took so many years ago.

Liza's story begins in 1837 with her marriage at the tender age of seventeen to James Marchant who was thirty years her senior. It was a surprisingly happy marriage, but happiness can often turn into disaster, and stability into fear and Ellie finds that Liza's fascinating life takes her to many countries where she meets the descendants of those whose success today had its roots in Liza's influence of the past.