Lord Brand Malloren awakes from a drugged stupor to find he is the prisoner of a masked woman who wants sex in reward for saving his life. He comes to believe her but who, then, drugged him and abandoned him in a remote Yorkshire dale? And what does his mysterious, and rather awkward, lover really want?

Rosamunde Overton wants only peaceful days in her quiet Wensleydale home, but if she doesn't have a baby her husband's estate and all who live there will fall into the hands of a ruthless religious sect. She finds the courage to sin, but can she find the courage to leave the man she has come to love?
Especially as she must harm him to keep her dangerous secret.

When she thinks she and her cousin have made everything safe, they discover that the Marquess of Rothgar is on hand, seeking his brother and intent on revenge against those who have harmed him.