Hidden in a convent in Bonapartist Spain, Dorothea Cannowen seizes her only chance to return to England. When she discovers a stranger, wounded and delirious in the convent garden, she nurses him to health—then begs him to take her back to England with him. But to do so—to preserve Dorothea's reputation—Douglas Matlin counters with a proposal: marry him now, and have the marriage annulled when they reach London.

Neither of them can know that the dangers of a journey through enemy territory will bring them closer together, or that that closeness will threaten Matlin's plans and Dorothea's happiness.