Must she pay for the sins of her mother?

Miss Charlotte Danvers has just received a life-altering shock. After spending most of her life in France in an elite school for girls, first as a student, and then as a teacher, she decides to return to London and take up residence with her mother.

When she arrives at her mother's townhouse in London, she is stunned to discover that the woman who raised her is a well-known courtesan.. After an angry and tearful confrontation with her mother, Charlotte leaves London and makes her home in Bath.

All goes well until she meets Mr. Carter Westbrooke, close friend and business partner of Charlotte's best friend's husband, Lord Berkshire. After only a few weeks, Mr. Westbrooke declares his intentions to make Charlotte his wife.

She can be no one's wife but cannot bring herself to tell him why. Must she run again?