Lady Deborah Martin's father has never forgiven her for a sin of which she was totally innocent. Her wild and beautiful mother took the tiny girl along when she eloped to Italy with her stepson's tutor. Then the lovers died a few years later, and Deborah had nowhere to go, but back to the earl's estate and the legacy of her mother's shame, fed by the malicious scorn of her sisters.

At eighteen, Deborah's only pleasure is in her music, but her fine singing enrages her father, who treats her as little more than a housekeeper. Then at a country house party, Deborah lashes out at an insult from handsome Lord Foxborough, who seems unaccountably interested in her -- but not as a wife.

Her scheming sister Elaine and widowed cousin Melanie, both of whom have set their caps for Foxborough, feed the earl's anger at Deborah. She finds herself in London, not to enjoy a season in society but as lowly companion to Melanie, who misses no opportunity to humiliate her.