Wendy Darling first encounters Peter as a lonely young girl. He was a mess of freckles and red hair, saying the strangest things about girls and trees and marriage. She never forgot the unusual boy, but life convinced her to surrender every consideration of her childhood for notoriety in society.

Her efforts at perfection culminated at her engagement ball to Lord Kallum, a much older man to whom her parents had promised her. Too late, Wendy realizes she is caught in a life she does not want. 

Her friend, Lady Aubrey, steals her away for a reprieve and offers a solution to her unwanted engagement: a pretend courtship with her brother, Lord Panworth, the strange boy she had met so long ago. 

When Lord Panworth sees Wendy Darling and realizes that they have met before, he immediately agrees to the ruse, but Wendy is not so sure. Hope is a dangerous thing, and she does not want her life to be meddled with. However, external forces push them into marriage. 

As Wendy is thrown into her new husband’s life, she finds herself in the unexpected role of mother to a gaggle of London’s orphans. She must decide whether to allow herself to love her husband and the children or give in to fear of failure. Wendy’s courage carries her far, leading her to fight for abused boys under the care of the evil Mr. Hook, an orphanage owner. Neither Wendy, Peter, nor the boys go unscathed in the fight for safety and freedom.