Ferdinand Lopez enters fashionable society with charm, confidence, and an air of prosperity despite the uncertainty surrounding his origins and finances, and he persistently courts Emily Wharton while competing with the steady Arthur Fletcher, who has loved her for years, but Emily’s wealthy barrister father Abel Wharton strongly distrusts a man about whom no one seems able to provide reliable information, while at the same time political deadlock leads Plantagenet Palliser, Duke of Omnium, reluctantly to accept the position of Prime Minister of a fragile coalition government and the Duchess begins using hospitality and social influence in an effort to strengthen her husband’s political position, and as Lopez refuses to abandon his pursuit of Emily he increasingly reveals both his social ambition and his desire for political advancement, establishing parallel conflicts between uncertain love and uncertain political power.
