There was no way beautiful and spirited Lacey Burton would marry the fortune-hunting Lord Collymore, who was known to be dallying with her stepmother. Disguised as a man, Lacey took off for Bussingham Towers, determined to keep her identity -- and fortune -- a secret.

As fate would have it, along the road she met Sir Roland Keyes, a self-confessed fortune hunter, who in spite of Lacey's "poverty" found himself quite taken with her. But he was in pursuit of another.

Lacey wanted Sir Roland to fall in love with her simply for her charms. And in trying to accomplish that she involved herself, with a famous balloonist, a little matchmaking between friends, a secret inheritance, some lively intrigue, and a scandalous series of jewel thefts....