The Honorable Hero Langage was informed one 1818 morning that her father, Baron Polhembury, had arranged a marriage between her and Drew Calloner, Earl of Calverstock, to pay his debts. Hero has heard nothing good about the Earl; he is known to be a former felon returned from Australia, but her alcoholic father, generally a weak man, insists that she will be wed to him and her hopes for love in her marriage are irrelevant. Hero is unwilling not least because she had met a pleasant gentleman in the village that morning who helped her retrieve a basket of plums.

To her surprise, the former felon and the charming gentleman are one and the same, but his attitude has changed enormously. Hero does not know it, but Drew overheard a conversation between her and her maid Matty in which she said that marrying a convict who was the son of a common woman was beneath her. Unfortunately he did not hear Matty set her straight immediately afterwards. Once married, their relationship becomes an emotional seesaw; each has fallen in love with the other but neither will admit it and both have much to learn.