Eggleston Hall Finishing School is preparing to entertain royalty for the first time in its history, and the teachers want their girls to make a good impression on the visiting prince — a dashing Italian from Venice.

There's no margin for error when, after last week's appalling lapse in standards, Ms Harbord announces a zero-tolerance policy on bad behaviour. But, when the four surviving ladettes are forced to wear a body harness to improve their deportment, one of them decides that enough is enough. Tough mine-worker, Sarah has fought hard to earn her place as an equal in a man's world, and she's not about to curtsey to anyone — not even a prince.