Nothing ever goes right for Eloise. The day she wears her new suede Jimmy Choos, it rains. When the Tube stops too quickly, she's the one thrown into some stranger's lap. And she's had her share of misfortune in the way of love. So, after deciding that romantic heroes must be a thing of the past, Eloise is ready for a fresh start but first she must finish her history dissertation on those most romantic of spies, the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian. While rummaging through a pile of old letters and diaries, Eloise discovers something amazing, something that historians have missed: the secret history of the Pink Carnation - the most elusive spy of all time. As she reads on, Eloise begins to wonder just who this brave secret agent was, but as she gets tantalizingly close to the answer, she is distracted by the very modern charms of Colin Selwick - is Eloise about to find a dashing hero all of her own?