Lady Charlotte is the happiest of young ladies as she awaits her beloved Gerald Kirkland, the dashing young man who is also, seemingly, devoted to her. Then, suddenly and without warning, Gerald disappears to far-off America in the company of the caddish Fitzwilliam Canterby, there to fall into the clutches of the lovely, dangerous Miss Chastity Brown. When Charlotte finds herself forced by her father into an engagement to the notorious Marquis of Beresford, who can promise her only a lifetime of cold courtesy and callous betrayal, she can bear it no longer.

As her wedding day draws near, Charlotte realizes she is about to lose her one chance of happiness – unless she takes matters into her own hands, and even if it means behaving as no young lady should, and taking a gamble she cannot afford to lose.