When lovely Lady Leonora Fordyce weds Etienne Lambert, who is of lowly birth despite his patrician demeanor, she saves her profligate father, the Earl of Castleford, from debtors' prison. But Leonora is spoiled and cannot imagine loving her new husband because he is a bastard, rumored to be a servant's child, an impoverished orphan who left England and returned from the Colonies a rich, "enlightened" tycoon. Can she change and bestow the affection on her husband he so richly deserves?