It was an outrageous idea! The penniless Miss Sophia Dalrymple was an authoress, and a good one, but the problem of finding a publisher seemed insurmountable. For that one needed a wealthy patron. She and her clergyman father had tried many avenues, but to no avail. — To Sophia there appeared just one solution: sell the only thing she had of value in exchange for patronage: Her Virtue.

And one day she did just that. She had not expected to be taken seriously, but to her horror the Marquis of Carrisbrooke did! Somehow she promised to become his mistress -- payment due the day her book was published. Surely, she prayed, as a man of honour he would not hold her to her bargain...