Young Peter de Vivian is so instantly smitten with the grace and beauty of Gemma Penhallow, the new housemaid of his family's Cornwall home, that he forgets himself and does an unspeakably shocking thing -- he shakes her hand! Despite the starchy rules of society, the young lovers manage to make a happy future together. But the older generation still has a trick or two up their sleeves which could change the course of both Gemma and Peter's lives.