Allan Everard, an earl's illegitimate son, is dismissed from his employment at his father's death but inherits a former coaching inn. Needing to make a new life in London, he begins by leasing the inn to a charity. Unexpectedly orphaned, Rosabel Stanbury and her younger sister are made wards of a distant, unknown cousin. Fearing his secretive ways and his intentions for them, Rosabel and Oriana flee to London where they are taken in by a women's charity. Drawn into Rosabel's problems, with his inn under surveillance by criminals, Allan has only a handful of unlikely allies, including an elderly general, a burglar, and an old lady who knows criminal slang. A traditional romance.