While exploring the attic in her cottage near the small English village of Finch, Lori Shepherd makes an extraordinary discovery: a gleaming gold and garnet bracelet - a relic of a doomed romance in Aunt Dimity's youth. Regretfully, Aunt Dimity asks Lori to do what she could not: return the bracelet to her unsuccessful suitor, setting Lori off on an adventure through London - and through history - to put a piece of Aunt Dimity's past to rest. Meanwhile, the residents of Finch are caught up in a metal-detecting fad, and someone unearths a piece of buried treasure that may hold the key to the bracelet's origin.

Is the bracelet a priceless national treasure? Was Aunt Dimity's lovesick suitor a common thief? As Lori searches for answers, she discovers an unexpected link between the buried treasure in the village and the treasure buried in Aunt Dimity's heart.