Emma Porter was forty, fat, frumpy, and a passionate amateur gardner. When her longtime lover dumps her for a younger woman, Emma escapes the cloying sympathy of family and friends by setting out on a summer-long driving tour of England's glorious gardens. A Dimity-contrived coincidence brings her to Penford Hall, a sprawling gothic mansion in Cornwall, where she finds a duke in search of a missing lantern with extraordinary powers. Suspecting there's more than one mystery to be solved at Penford Hall, Emma accepts the duke's invitation to stay on and restore the once-glorious chapel garden to its former beauty. The dark rumors surrounding a rock star and the near death of the duke's beautiful cousin confirm Emma's suspicious, and set her -- with Aunt Dimity's ghostly guidance -- on the path to Penford Hall's secrets and the pleasure of unexpected love.