Firmly on the shelf, Poppy Fairchild has spent the past few years eking out a living as a Gothic novelist—under a pseudonym—to support herself and her younger sisters. Lacking for inspiration for some particularly salacious scenes, she seizes upon the idea to spy upon a gentleman engaged in an illicit liaison at a ball for research purposes. Unbeknownst to her, she's chosen exactly the wrong gentleman from which to draw inspiration.
David Kittridge, the Earl of Westwood, is deep in the throes of heartbreak, as the woman he loves has recently become engaged to someone else. Engaging in meaningless trysts seems as good a way as any to cure himself of lovesickness, but after mistaking Poppy for a woman in search of a touch of scandal, and a kiss that leaves him reeling, he finds that he can't quite get her out of his head.
David is incensed when he discovers that he has been used as material for a Gothic novel, and is determined to ferret out the culprit. But when he comes into possession of Poppy's writing notebook and learns of her secret career as a Gothic novelist, he realizes the notebook comes with an unexpected boon—the leverage he needs to lure in the reluctant Poppy. If anyone should discover her secret, it would destroy her reputation and ruin her sisters' chances of making decent matches. But David's blackmail leads them down a path that neither would ever have expected.