The story is set in 1911, at the end of the Edwardian period. Jessica Medlicott is an aging grande dame, formerly an actress of the London theatre, accused of having met, courted, promised marriage to, and then jilted and abandoned her suitor. The much-younger ex-fiancé then files suit, seeking £50,000 in damages for breach of promise. She retains the greatest barrister in the empire, Sir Arthur Granville-Jones, to defend her. He is incidentally also a man she seduced and abandoned 40 years earlier, but who has remained hopelessly in love with her ever since.