Only eighteen and Elizabeth knows exactly where her place in society is—at the top. She's flawlessly behaved and unwaveringly polite. She's pure in every way. Well, every way but one. Beneath her elegant facade hides a deep desire that Elizabeth will go to great lengths to conceal.

At sixteen, Diana is aching to break free of the constrained society girl role that her sister plays so well. She's just as lovely, but twice as romantic, rebellious and curious. Diana's greatest disappointment will be finding out that the one thing she wants already belongs to someone else, but that certainly won't stop her from going after it.

With her dramatic nose and full lips, eighteen-year-old Penelope is often derided for being a little too much—not that Penelope cares. She's beautiful and brash and she isn't the slightest bit concerned that her money is a smidgen younger than that of her high society peers. Wealth is wealth, and Penelope will use hers to claim everything and everyone she wants.

The consummate playboy, twenty-year-old Henry has been linked to several debutantes, English ladies, and even a few actresses (or so the society pages say). Penelope is rumored to be one of his latest conquests, and it appears he's been linked to Elizabeth, too. There is a line of debutantes hoping to be next. How long before Diana catches his eye?

By seventeen, Lina should know that she was born to serve. The trouble is there's a chip on her shoulder, a burning crush in her heart, and she's convinced she was made for better things than being Elizabeth Holland's maid. The one advantage of her station in life is that Lina can keep her enemies close. She may clean the Holland's home, but she also lives and eavesdrops among them.

As the Holland family's carriage boy, Will was raised in the bosom of Elizabeth's wealthy family. As children, the two would play together happily, with Lina by their side—three best friends with no regard for society's rules. As they grew older, Elizabeth assumed her rightful place among Manhattan's elite, but the carriage boy still occupies a special place in her heart.

Henry's loyal best friend Teddy has had a crush on Elizabeth Holland for longer than he can remember. He's watched with amusement as Henry flirted with half of Manhattan, but there's no way he'll let his friend's wandering eye hurt the Holland family. That is, if he has a say in what the Schoonmaker family has planned.

Before she married William Schoonmaker, Isabella was one of the most beautiful, talked-about young socialites in the city. Becoming Henry's stepmother didn't take away any of that celebrated youth or beauty either. Why should a little thing like marriage keep Isabella from having her fun?