Keeping up appearances for her older brother, and his Society lifestyle while also caring for their young brother and sister is becoming too much for the beautiful Minerva as they have very little money and the bills are mounting every day. So when Tony confesses that he owes the terrifying gambling debt of two thousand pounds to his friend, the Earl of Gorleston, with an unsavoury and raffish reputation, she is mortified. In utter desperation Minerva dresses herself up as a highwayman, creeps into The Castle and tries to blackmail the Earl at gunpoint. But, of course, she fails dismally.