Isabella Hathaway has had a dreadful twelve months; her father committed suicide after gaming away the family fortune, her brother is lost in the ongoing skirmishes with Bonaparte and her fiance has jilted her. Little wonder her spirit is bruised. To provide for her two sisters, she must find a suitable husband, no easy thing when she had been living under a cloud of scandal.
When Isabella is kidnapped from a masquerade ball, she thinks she is surely ruined. But that is before she comes to know the scatty, good natured Earl of Stornley and his devilishly handsome best friend, Harry Carstairs. Isabella and Stornely hatch a plan that will get her out of trouble and land him the girl of his dreams. With Harry's far from willing help, Isabella makes plans to secure a respectable match and put her problems behind her. It will all go just as she plans - if she can avoid the lure of the the wonderfully womanizing Mr. Carstairs who makes it clear he is not in need of a wife!