Desperate Remedies is a story set in a town called Hope on the edge of Britain's empire where desperations clash.
The beautiful Dorothea Brook is desperate to free her pregnant sister Rose from the clutches of Fraser, a fortune hunter.
A local politician, William Poyner, is desperate for cash and thinks marriage to Dorothea will save him.
Dorothea hires Lawrence Hayes, a rough but handsome Argonaut, to bribe Fraser with jewels and to marry Rose; Hayes desperately loves Dorothea and may marry Rose to stay close to her.
But Dorothea has a lover, the ravishing Anne Cooper, who encourages the match with Poyser to give the lovers cover.
Are these remedies, each desperate in its turn, going to make anyone happy?