She's a reluctant tourist. His future does not allow for detours. Will they find each other in the terra incognita of love?

England, 1814. Coaxed by family members to the seaside, Beatrice Ellsworth nearly loses her life in a bathing-machine mishap, only to be rescued by a quick-thinking young man. The grateful Ellsworths embrace him, and he soon steals Beatrice's heart, despite him being engaged to another. If these are the consequences of Beatrice's first pleasure trip, will she ever be persuaded to make another?

Penniless John Clayton was apprenticed in his adolescence to a rising engineer. Years later, when the successful man lay dying, he entrusted his orphaned daughter and her inheritance to John, encouraging them to marry when she was older. What else could John do for this man who was more than a father to him? He agreed to it all, hoping love would come later. By the time he met Beatrice Ellsworth he knew better, but by then he could no more alter his path than he could the Grand Junction Canal.

When the two meet again in London, Beatrice dutifully tries to forget him. But knowing she is the only one he can love, John struggles to find an honorable escape from his heartbreaking arrangement.