Sylvester is dying, and to assure the family line will continue he convinces his granddaughter and grandnephew to become engaged. Sir Tristam Shield is a well meaning enough gentleman, but he is eminently unsuited to marrying the young, vivacious, and entirely silly Eustacie. Luckily, before their marriage is carried out Eustacie runs off in a poorly planned grand gestures and encounters the far more romantic Ludovic Lavenham, Sylvester's true heir. He's been on the run for years, ever after he was suspected of killing a man to get back a family heirloom (the "talisman ring" of the title). Ludovic, the immediately besotted Eustacie, and their older and wiser allies, Shield and Miss Sarah Thane, try to figure out how to clear Ludovic's name. They go through numerous adventures and misadventures, each pretty silly. I really enjoyed Shield and Miss Thane's relationship: they almost immediately have the measure of each other, and take turns trolling each other. When they make their flirtatious relationship public, it's at least partially as part of an ongoing game of chicken. They made this book not only readable, but enjoyable.