On holiday with her aunt in Cornwall, spineless Virginia fell in love with Eustace, but left him for a loveless marriage, arranged by their parents to Scottish landed gentleman Anthony Keile. Only after Anthony's fatal car accident, she properly reads the nuptial terms, which allow Lady Keile to deny her any income from the estate at will, and she wants to raise Anthony's two kids, who so far were left in a nanny's care. Virginia still experiments with actual motherhood, taking them on a Cornwall holiday, meeting Eustace again.