Lizzy's younger cousin Caroline is about to marry Captain Garrisfield, the nephew and heir of the Duke of Cambridge. Lizzy is not so lucky. All the eligible young men of the ton are only fortune and title hunters.
Moreover, they are not man enough to tempt her in any way. When she meets the duke more often due to the new family connection, she decides that he is the only man she will ever love, but she also knows that this will remain an unfulfilled longing for the rest of her life.
After she is unsuccessful at trying to find a way to convince the duke that she is worth the risk of revealing his secrets to and confiding in, she turns to her cousin for solace. Much is at stake and Lizzy's family threatens to disown her. Will she have to marry her cousin's tyrant neighbour after all?