Nine years after a marquess miraculously fell in love with Elizabeth Bennet, the worst that could happen did, and she was left to raise four little ones on her own. A year after Henry's death, she is as little prepared to return to high society as she was to enter it when they married, but a reminder of her responsibilities to her rank and her children helps her courage rise to take the first steps. Fitzwilliam Darcy sadly lost his wife in childbirth a year after they married, and he has raised his daughter alone at Pemberley for the last six years. One of his noble aunts entices him to make the journey to London to share in the bonds of family, while another claims it is past time he found his little girl a mother and sired and heir-and Lady Catherine de Bourgh has decided that the right woman to fill the role is none other than Elizabeth.

Darcy and Elizabeth are brought together by their family connexion, and love for their children leads to their spending time together. Although he sees that the years have only enhanced her beauty and she sees that he is a changed man from the one she knew in Meryton, neither is thinking of marriage-certainly not to each other! But matchmaking is the business of the London social Season, and innocent visits to each other's homes leads to speculation that they are courting in secret.

Can the return of unrequited love help Darcy heal Elizabeth's broken heart? Or will Elizabeth's determination to remain a widow keep them apart forever?