Governess Moira Greenwood's beautiful young charge, Perdita Brodie, is a high-spirited girl. She rebels against her stepmama's choice of mate and manages to get Moira and herself positions in a not-quite-shabby traveling acting troupe. While Moira cooks, her lovely cousin sings, attracting the very insistent attentions of the cold, handsome rakehell Lord Stornaway--who takes the pair for women of easy virtue! Although Moria explains the truth, the self-satisfied lord believes not a word; he's positive the two are ladies of ill repute. Moria finds him the most rude, uncivil of men and tells him so. Still, there is something about him she can't quite define that is not completely loathsome.