Following the death of her roguish husband, Kit Mallory returns to the life of a scholar, with its dusty books and shamefully out-of-date dresses. Although she has no one to love, Kit believes, after her spouse's ill treatment, that romance is highly overrated.

Then the Dowager Duchess of Wexcombe, Kit's bosom friend, finds herself in a pickle, and the young widow offers her help, never expecting to make the acquaintance of the duchess's nephew, Lord Bainbridge-or to make a reckless bargain with the charming peer that may win her true love…or cost her heart.