In 1897 orphan Rose Turner revisits Exeter, the city of her birth. A chance meeting inspires her to find a way to better her life and escape the drudgery for which she's been trained. She also learns the truth of her family's death in a tragic fire ten years before. Back in London she enrols at a cookery school and becomes a key member of the team hired out to grand houses to cater for important guests, for she has a particular talent with ice-cream. At several of these she encounters George Kemble, self-made businessman, in line to succeed to the Duke of Fairleigh's title, should he meet the Duke's exacting conditions. Rose inadvertently finds herself trapped aboard a cargo ship heading for the Cape. Not only is it one of the Kemble Shipping Line fleet, but the owner himself is on board. Discovered by him, she bargains for her liberty and agrees to his terms but later, unknown to him, avoids carrying them out. After some adventures of his own, George at last realises her deception and this time his demand for recompense takes an entirely unexpected form.