Like every other Duke, Hadrian Ames, the Duke of Clayton, needs a bride. While he thought he had the perfect one picked out, the outspoken American Natalie Fanshawe catches his eye. She isn't flattered by his attention or title in the least. Instead, she's too busy trying to open a school and reunite a young orphan with his family. Hadrian is determined to launch a campaign to win her over and have her fall in love with him in spite of his title.
Abigail Linton and Maxwell Bryce had romantic feelings for each other when young, but Max and his infant sister were brought to London after his mother's death. Fifteen years later, Abigail had gotten fed up with her older siblings perpetually using her to soothe their lives with no consideration for her wants. She accepts the post of governess for Max's younger sister, thinking that he would be away from the estate. Circumstances send him back to the estate along with his libertine friends, and the two meet again for the first time in fifteen years.