Heartbroken after the death of his eccentric lover, Jenks is left to care for Mutt’s beloved pets on a lovely but isolated estate. With only the animals for company and rejected years earlier by his family when he left school to be with his lover, Jenks worries he’s fading from the world—until one misty morning when he discovers a half-drowned man on the bank of the river. And not just any man, but one who may have been the victim of an attempted murder. James Griffin is respectable and married…and has buried his true passion his entire life. Jenks’s gentle manner and keen mind stir in him the sort of longing he wishes he had for his wife. The same frustrated wife he now wonders may have plotted his demise. His memories clouded, Griffin knows he must discover his attacker’s identity, resolve matters in his unhappy marriage…and confront the desire he feels for the shy but tenacious Jenks. Together, they return to London to learn the truth of Griffin’s near murder. The police believe the incident nothing more than an accident, leaving Griffin and Jenks to find their way through a tangle of conflicting desires and ambitions to hunt the truth on their own.