1815. In London, everyone awaits with baited breath news from the continent, where Napoleon has returned and is about to engage Britain’s army. Among the anxious populace are Nathan Rotschild, a banker of growing reputation among the mighty, and his brother Jacob, who is in love with Charlotte – a French aristocrat in exile forced to make a living as a courtesan. As the battle soon to be joined at Waterloo will determine the fate of the kingdom, fortunes will be made – or unmade …

1825. Charlotte, now living in Paris and ruined by Jacob Rothschild’s schemes, is once again forced to sell her body, until news comes that gives her hope again: King Charles X has decided to compensate the ‘Émigrés’ – the nobles who had fled the French Revolution and lost everything. A chance for her to get part of her family’s fortune back … but her London past still haunts her: the murder of a lord, and a brother she abandoned to British justice …