Bridget Dene Mordaunt inherited her father's business at the age of nineteen, and by the time she was twenty-three in 1880 she was making a success of its management. But due to her cousin Victoria's infatuation with Lionel Filmore, Bridget's life was not to prove an easy one, and a pattern of some good, and some great evil was to be formed which would shape the lives of generations to come.