Reginald Mason has been a wildly extravagant expense to his father for too long. He must marry and settle down. And it so happens that Lady Annabelle Ashton, daughter of the Earl of Havercroft, the Masons' neighbor and long- time enemy, has just disgraced herself by trying to elope with her father's coachman. At last Mr. Mason sees a way of forcing recognition for his wealth even though he is not a gentleman by birth. Reggie will marry Annabelle—or be cut off forever from his father's vast funds.

Annabelle is about to be banished to her father's most remote estate in northern England. She is ruined and unmarriageable. But at the last moment she is offered a reprieve from complete disgrace, and her father is offered a reprieve from the financial ruin he has been facing for some time. All the earl has to do is swallow his pride and marry his daughter to the son of his enormously wealthy neighbor, whom he has despised for years.

It is not a promising start for the lifelong commitment of marriage. But it would seem that Reggie and Annabelle have no choice but to make the best of it. They have no control over their destiny, after all.