Lilian Chesney goes to stay with her guardians, the Chetwoodes. She quickly becomes a favorite of the family, being beautiful and merry, and her flightiness just makes her favors seem more piquant. Over the course of many months (and several hundred pages), two men vie for her love: her cousin, Archibald Chesney, and her guardian, Sir Guy Chetwoode. Being so young and innocently flirty, Lilian changes her mind and moods often and drives both of them to distraction--and the reader, too.Meanwhile, Guy's younger, funnier brother Cyril has fallen in love with a neighbor, a young and beautiful widow. But even as their love affair becomes serious, the question comes up--is she really a widow?
Which indistinguishable handsome rich young man will Lilian choose? Will Cyril and the widow actually marry? And how many times will Lilian's flesh and mind be compared to a baby's, as though that's super hot? It's all rather vexing. The high points of this book were when the characters were silly with each other; I think Hungerford (aka The Duchess) is much better at comedy than romance or tragedy. The best characters by far were the comic ones: chattering, light hearted Cyril and Florence Beauchamp, who is the perfect lady in every way and insufferable because of it.