Along with her triplet sisters, Lady Beaujolais Ashbury is a celebrated beauty, but after five seasons she has yet to find a match she finds tolerable. Since her father refuses to arrange a marriage, it is rumoured in London society that she is holding out for a duke.

Benedict Stanton, Duke of Yardley, vowed never to marry again when his first marriage ended in a scandalous divorce. Having retreated to the country for nearly a decade, he is thought to be a cold-hearted recluse. Now faced with leaving his dukedom to the Crown for lack of an heir, he sets out to find a bride in a manner more suited to generations past-through his solicitor.

When Lady Beaujolais receives one of the Duke's impersonal proposals, she rejects it out of hand and in considerable anger. Little does she know she is soon to be forced into his company every day...