Beatrice Lacey is a beautiful woman so totally consumed by her obsession with her ancestral home that she risks everything- reputation, love, honor, and even murder- to possess it. Beatrice, sensual and infinitely manipultive, schemes and seduces her way toward fulfilling her ambition. As a woman in eighteenth century England without property rights, Beatrice can only look forward to being exiled from the land she loves to an arranged marriage. But the laws of men and nature mean nothing to her as Beatrice single-mindedly pursues her goal of becoming the true mistress of Wide-acre. No one and nothing can stand in her way- not family ties, not the bonds of love- as she sets off an inexplorable chain of events that will insure her hold on the land.
