The local branch of the Scottish Women's Institute want to use Kintyre Mansion to hold their annual fundraising ball. There's only one problem—its owner.

Duncan Stewart is a young widower, still reeling from grief two years after losing his wife, and making the town suffer while he does it. The artist doesn't paint anymore—he's become a bad-tempered recluse. The only person he can tolerate for any length of time is his housekeeper—whom he feels overly protective toward, in a professional sort of way...mostly. It seems his grief is coming to an end, and the only woman who interests him in the slightest is the one who's off limits. The one who works for him. And, the one who's very much up to something...

Donna Sinclair, the mansion's housekeeper, is well known for her three weaknesses: being a sucker for a good sob story, an injured animal and a lost soul. And there are days when her boss is all three—and it makes him a little cranky. Which is why she hasn't told him that she's given the Women's Institute permission to hold their fundraising ball at the mansion. Now all she needs to do is get him out of the building for the weekend of the party. There's only one problem with her plan—Duncan is practically a hermit and has barely set foot out of the mansion since his wife died.

But Donna has a secret weapon on her side—her crazy sisters who would do just about anything to help her out!