When her friend Prudence shows her a letter from a soldier away at war to which she does not mean to reply, Beatrix asks permission to write . . . and pretend she's Pru, since the man once said something mean about Beatrix. In the course of their correspondence, they fall in love, but Beatrix can't tell him the truth of her identity. When Christopher returns home, a decorated officer and suddenly very eligible, Prudence decides he's worth her attention. Beatrix is beneath his attention, but Prudence isn't the person she was in her letters and Christopher is confused.