Jane Mansfield, a gentleman's daughter in 1813 England, has long wished to escape a life in which career choices are limited to wife or maiden aunt. But awakening one morning in twenty-first-century Los Angeles - in the body of someone called Courtney Stone - is not exactly what she had in mind.

Jane must quickly get to grips with a world in which everyone thinks she is Courtney Stone: a dizzying world of horseless metal carriages, unrestricted clothing, tiny apartments, all manner of flirting,and unheard-of liberties for womankind. The only thing Jane appears to have in common with Courtney is a love for the novels of Jane Austen. But are the wise words of her favourite novelist enough to guide her through this bewildering new world? And what is she to make of Courtney's attentive friend Wes, who is as attractive and confusing as the man who broke her heart back home?

As Courtney's romantic entanglements become her own, Jane wonders: Would she actually be better off back in Regency England - and will she ever be able to return?