Katherine Daugherty will do anything to avoid an arranged marriage at the tender age of fifteen. Running away from Dominion Falls, the only home she's ever known, seems her only hope. She enlists the help of the one man she knows will never tell her parents the truth-the town's nefarious brothel owner, Cole Mitchell.

She makes her escape and winds up in Chicago. For three years she keeps her head down, but when she turns eighteen she steps into the world ready to take it by storm.

Katherine takes a chance and asks a well-known rake to help her learn a few indecent things. Little does she know, life itself is about to teach her more than she ever expected.