Brontë scholar Sara Frost's unsuccessful search for the lost love letters of Charlotte Brontë hasn't won her any favor at her university, particularly now that the glamorous and self-promoting Princess Diana scholar, Claire Vigee, has introduced her media-savvy exploits to the staid halls of academia. But it's not until Sara's fiancé suddenly leaves that she begins to question her life's vocation and is forced to reconcile the mythology of romance with the reality of modern love.

Sara's jolt brings her to an unusual new world, one populated by a cheerfully amoral Frenchman, a pair of New York eccentrics who live in the 19^th century, a born-again Christian experimental artist, a lapsed methadone-addict of a screenwriter, a Hollywood producer who mistakenly assumes that the short, sad life of Charlotte Brontë has the makings of an uplifting movie and, ultimately, a bed in Tuscany that may or may not foretell the destiny of its visitors.

Along the way, Sara discovers that the life and writings of Charlotte Brontë may have taught her more than she ever guessed about the virtues of being a romantic with the heart of a pragmatist - and she finds the surprising path of her own desire and true happiness. It's an irreverent and comic look at love, loss, literature, pop culture, Hollywood, and the mysterious biographical similarities between Charlotte Brontë and Princess Diana.