Duncan MacTavish has lived twenty-one deliriously contented years in the Scottish Highlands, but has recently learned he is the sole heir of an English Marquis and is now required to assume his grandfather's titles and estates. Worse still, a betrothal has already been arranged without his consent to the ravishing, viper-tongued Ophelia.

Bad circumstances, however, can sometimes have distinctly pleasurable advantages - especially when his unwanted intended's sudden desire to repent brings the dashing highlander into close proximity with the enchanting Sabrina. Sabrina Lambert is a young country girl who Ophelia is helping sponsor on her first trip to London. Now this is a woman for whom Duncan would willingly abandon his beloved Scotland. But duty and station forbid Sabrina's and Duncan's desired union. And a secret lurks in the lady's past which threatens their romance. Under such adverse conditions, a match that should be, a passion that must be, can not possibly be - unless true love can somehow find a way.