In the regal yet rigid world of Sheltonshire, Elibeth, the Count's daughter, faces a grim reality. On her eighteenth birthday, she is bound by an arranged marriage not of love, but of convenience and revenge. Her suitor, Duke Eugene of Brenan, known for his disdain towards her, sees this union as a means of retribution. The novel unfolds the complexities of their relationship, unmasking the emotional turmoil beneath the façade of aristocratic life.