The governess and the revolutionary In 1847, with Europe on the verge of revolution, Katie Kettles travels to Hungary as governess to the family of Count Istvan Szelenyi. On the journey, she first encounters peasant-born radical Lajos Lazar making incendiary speeches from a table-top in Vienna. Lajos is young, idealistic, and ruthless in his cause. She has never met anyone like him. But he is not her only distraction from her duties, for Katie has her own vengeful agenda which begins to stutter as she reluctantly becomes involved with the Szelenyis' lives and loves. Hungary's revolution sweeps all before it. But it is only the beginning of a heroic and doomed struggle, embroiling Katie and Lajos in a passionate love affair and dangerous adventures, and culminating, surely, in inevitable tragedy...