Young lawyer Robert Audley, a sybarite who prefers canaries and dogs to judicial practice, meets someone else's misfortune for the first time: Robert's old acquaintance, gold digger George Talboys, is widowed. To distract Talboys from his sad thoughts, Robert invites him to visit his uncle in an old manor house — the best place in the world. Communication with the noble and generous Sir Audley and his young wife Lady Audley, the kindest woman in the whole United Kingdom, will certainly help the unfortunate George to bear the loss and return to life. But on the eve of his meeting with Milady, Talboys disappears without a trace, and Robert begins an investigation. The Mystery of Lady Audley (1862) is the most famous book by the British writer Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1837-1915), an example of a Victorian "sensational novel" — a detective story with elements of a high—society novel.