A matchmaker has six weeks, five guests and one very public wager to see somebody married.
Every summer the matchmaker opens Fairweather to a carefully chosen party, and every autumn the newspapers print the engagements. This year the matchmaker has wagered a famous gossip columnist that the reluctant heir will be engaged by Michaelmas, and invited the heir's poor cousin and a naval captain home from the war to help or hinder. The gossip columnist is in the house under a false name. The heir has made a vow. And the person everyone keeps falling for is never the one the matchmaker intended.
5 roles. You take one; your friends take the rest, and the narrator plays any left over. Anyone can bring a character of their own into a role instead.
A widowed countess who has arranged thirty-one marriages and considers her own the only failure.
The heir to a great estate who has sworn never to marry and been invited to Fairweather precisely because of it.
A clergyman's daughter with no fortune and a sharp tongue, brought to Fairweather as the matchmaker's companion and secretary.
A naval captain home from the war with prize money, a famous reputation and no idea how to behave in a drawing room.
The anonymous author of the most feared column in London, attending the party under a false name to win a wager and fill a season.