It has been two years since Lady Marion Tunstall lost her husband at sea, two years of sorrow and grief. Only now has the young, comely widow finally reentered society. It is then, when she and her family attend the merriment of a country dance, that Lady Marion sees her dead husband, alive and well—and faints dead away.

Lord Tristan Tunstall has no choice but to confess: he is alive, yes, but not a whole man who can be a husband and father. When he offers her a divorce, however, Marion stubbornly refuses. Now she has forced herself back into his life and into his home and (oh, God forgive his weakness) his bed. He cannot stop himself from wanting her, loving her. But can he live with the secret she is keeping from him?