The novel focuses on the young heroine LydieD'Aumont, who is trapped between two pretenders: the hot-headed childhood friend Gaston de Stainville and a more reserved English lord, Henry Dewhyrst, Marquis of Eglinton. It shares some similarities with its predecessor, 'The Scarlet Pimpernel', also written by the author, sharing some relationship with a character from that novel, Lord Antony Dewhurst. 'Petticoat Government' for its part is a story of French aristocracy.
