Signing up for a lifetime in India was a sacrifice, no less for the men than for the women they married. What made that sacrifice worthwhile for the young Richard Temple were qualities now seen as old-fashioned: a belief in God and a sense of purpose, inculcated by the East India College, Haileybury. Convinced it was his duty to do good, he set out to work on behalf of the Company, India and the Indians, all too soon made aware by the tumults of 1857 that the land to which he had committed his life was changing forever.

One of the most articulate and energetic men of his generation, he would later, as Sir Richard Temple, serve as Finance Minister, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal and Governor of Bombay.

Accompany him through the demanding formative years and his tragically brief marriage, until, aged only thirty-six, he was entrusted with sole control of a whole region to govern.