September, 1899. After the death of her uncle, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Emma Cross is in no mood for one of Newport's extravagant parties. But to keep Vanderbilt's reckless son Neily out of trouble, she accompanies him to an Elizabethan fete on the lavish grounds of Wakehurst, the Ochre Point cottage owned by Anglophile James Van Alen. As Emma wanders the grounds, she overhears an argument behind a tall hedge-- and then finds a man on the ground, an arrow through his chest. The victim is one of the 400's most influential members, Judge Clayton Schuyler-- but he was not the straight arrow he appeared to be. -- adapted from jacket