A comic illustrator with dreams of artistic freedom falls for a nobleman on the brink of financial ruin. Will Lucy find her place or lose her heart?

Lucille Van Zandt has always been more captivated by her whimsical newspaper strip, Lucy LaMode's Fashionable Frolics, than Manhattan's social whirl. Her parents insist she abandon her career as a comic strip artist and travel to London, where marriage to a titled gentleman could secure their place among the elite. Determined to play by her own rules, Lucy resolves to continue her illustrations in her new surroundings.

London's aristocracy proves as elusive as New York's famed Four Hundred. But Lucy is undeterred when she crashes an exclusive ball, catching the eye of the Marquess of Harlington, whose ancestral home is on the brink of ruin.

Frederick, Lord Harlington, sees Lucy's creativity—and substantial dowry—as the solution to his financial woes. As their romance deepens, can Lucy pursue her artistic ambitions without sacrificing her heart? Will Frederick find a way to reconcile his feelings for Lucy with the crushing demands of his estate? Or must their aspirations force them to choose between love and their dreams?