According to a sensational West End play, the Victorian children's writer, Dorothea Harding, was no dowdy maiden aunt, but the passionate participant in a torrid, tragic romance. It is the task of Roy Collins to turn the play into an equally popular film. Dorothea's descendents have only weak objections to the misuse of their relation's private past - they need money more than dignity. But Roy has misgivings, and when a set of revealing letters are discovered, he begins to feel that the truth might be more important than the story.
