Emma Grant has a respectable marriage, a prestigious teaching job, and plans for children. Then one day she finds her husband in bed with another woman, and her world crumbles. Denied tenure in the wake of the scandal, Emma quits Texas, heading for England to pursue a dream - to find the 3000 missing letters of Jane Austen. A reclusive widow claims to have the author's correspondence, and agrees to allow her sight of the letters, but only subject to stringent security and the completion of a series of tasks which set Emma off across England, searching for the secrets Jane Austen hoped to bury. And the reappearance of her old friend, Adam, doesn't make the quest any easier. As Emma uncovers the legendary author's innermost thoughts, she begins to understand the reasons for her idol's secrecy. Laced with excerpts from the missing letters, this is the story of a woman betrayed ...