At six-and-ten years, Elizabeth Bennet finds herself trapped at home in the autumn of 1801 because a gentleman begins to court her older sister Jane, and Mrs. Bennet insists that her next eldest daughter remain in the parlour as a chaperone. Eventually begging her father for relief, Mr. Bennet directs Elizabeth to turn her hand to writing a story to pass the days during the winter while Jane's suitor sits with her. The suitor eventually loses interest, but Lizzy's writing grows into an interesting novel that Mr. Bennet's publisher in London purchases to print and sell. Over the next four years, Elizabeth continues to write one novel that involves a murder each Winters.
Unfortunately, the setting of two of Elizabeth's novels is the town where her aunt grew up in Derbyshire. The success of the novel brings unwanted attention to the great house nearby. The master of this house, Fitzwilliam Darcy, is displeased for visitors to ask to view the parlour where 'the murder' occurred. After the second novel set in Derbyshire is published, Mr. Darcy visits the publisher about contacting the author, but the man refuses to disclose the information.
On his own, he decides that the author lives in Hertfordshire, the setting of two other novels, and visits with his friend Charles Bingley, who has taken an estate there for a time. Darcy is determined to discover the incorrigible author and prevent the man from writing another novel set in Derbyshire. After a month in Meryton, Mr. Darcy is convinced that Mr. Thomas Bennet is the elusive author and tries to find out more information by talking with the man's daughter, Elizabeth.