Chosen to marry a complete stranger, Elspeth Shutterhouse must enter the marriage machine, which will destroy her ambitions, dull her personality, and turn her into a drone. Instead of following the dictates of her repressive society, Elspeth puts everything on the line to destroy the machine. But a wrench is thrown into the works when she comes face-to-face with the one person who might be able to outwit her...irresistably handsome Mark Ramsay, the scion of the powerful family that invented the machine.